As the Pittsburgh Steelers get ready for week one against the San Francisco 49ers tomorrow, they have a lot of weapons to game plan for. From RB Christian McCaffery to WRs Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk, there is no shortage of offensive skill position talent on this loaded 49ers roster. But for one weapon, TE George Kittle, Mike Tomlin has a specific tactic in mind.
Tomlin touched on this in the Week One episode of The Mike Tomlin Show, posted on the team’s YouTube account Saturday afternoon.
“We’re going to keep our inside linebackers away from Kittle.” Tomlin told host Bob Pompeani. “Kittle has made his reputation on eating on linebackers. High-end safeties like Minkah [Fitzpatrick] and people like that work to minimize him in the passing game. He is one of the very best at what he does in the business. In that same company as [Travis] Kelce, the run after is what makes him really unique. They get open, they create separation at breakpoints, and when they catch they are dynamic in the run after game. It’s a safeties job, no doubt. We gotta be smart, particularly on possession downs.”
Kittle is a classic example of a guy that’s too quick to be covered by the big guys on defense, and too big to be covered by the quick guys. At 6-4, 250 pounds, and running a 4.52 40-yard dash, Kittle poses a threat as an absolute matchup nightmare for most teams.
Despite the Steelers’ inside linebacking room being revamped and looking much improved heading into 2023, Tomlin is wisely opting to keep them away from a guy like Kittle, especially in Week One. The new group of Cole Holcombe, Kwon Alexander, and Elandon Roberts will have other responsibilities.
Luckily for Pittsburgh, they have one of very few guys in the league who can reasonably match up with Kittle in FS Minkah Fitzpatrick. The two have matched up before, back in 2019, in Week Four which was actually Fitzpatrick’s debut game with the Steelers. Kittle recorded six receptions in the game for 57 yards, while Fitzpatrick had five tackles and an interception. The pick did come when Kittle was blocking, however, but Kittle did shove him out of bounds on the return. The 49ers got the last laugh with the win in that one, 24-20.
This time around, with Tomlin more comfortable with Fitzpatrick’s abilities, expect to see the two matched up together even more than in 2019. While San Francisco has a ton of other options, winning this matchup battle would take away arguably their biggest positional advantage.
