Iowa football: George Kittle ranked 2nd best TE in the NFL

After a monster 2018 NFL season by former Iowa football player George Kittle, it was no surprise to see him make the NFL’s top-100 players list of 2019.

Every year the NFL releases its top-100 players’ list as voted on by the players, and every year there are a few big risers; guys who were nowhere near the top-100 list who catapult up the list. This year one of those guys skyrocketing up the board is former Iowa football player George Kittle.

Kittle is fresh off one of the finest tight end receiving seasons in the history of the NFL after setting the single-season receiving yards by a tight end. What’s shocking about that is he did with two backup quarterbacks (one of which was an undrafted free agent last year) throwing him the ball the majority of the time.

Despite being a 5th round draft pick out of the Iowa football program, Kittle has quickly emerged as one of the best tight ends in the NFL. In addition to the record he set last year, he also made his first Pro Bowl, and with Patriots great Rob Gronkowski retiring, there is room at the top for another great tight end.

However, it appears that Kittle will need to wait one more season to claim the throne of the best tight end according to the players as he was recently ranked 29th overall in the NFL, 8 spots behind Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Theoretically, there is still a chance another tight end is ranked higher with the top-20 players still undisclosed, but with Kelce, Kittle, and Ertz off the board, there is a clear gap between them and any other challengers leading me to believe this is for the tight ends on the list.

With San Francisco starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo returning from injury, it’ll be interesting to see if Kittle’s statistics regress due to a lack of chemistry or improve due to better quarterback play from the 49ers’ top QB.