George Kittle's four-year, $76.4 million contract extension with the San Francisco 49ers leapfrogged him to the top of the tight end market, surpassing Trey McBride's $19 million per year pact with the Cardinals.
Kittle hopes others will best him to keep pushing the tight end market forward.
"The only way for the tight end market to continue to grow is if everybody's getting paid," Kittle told The Dan Patrick Show on Monday. "That's the only way to do it. You can't just have one guy do it and then it just sits for four years because then you're stuck and it's stagnant and no one's getting paid. We want everybody, I want everybody to have great seasons. I want everybody to have great games, just not against the 49ers. Throughout the rest of the season, they can play as well as they want to because I want guys to get paid, to keep bumping up that market so by the time that Brock Bowers is doing his contract in three years, he's going for over $20 million, which he will. That's just the whole point."
One of the founders of Tight End University, Kittle believes there is untapped potential at the position.
"When Tight End U started, I think the top of the market was 15 (million dollars), and now we're almost at 20," he said. "So we're continually growing it. As a tight end and as a position who does everything, yeah, I think we should be making more money, but we're working on it."
McBride joined Kittle and Travis Kelce as one of the prolific tight ends to get paid. In coming seasons, the likes of Sam LaPorta, Kyle Pitts and eventually Bowers will be in for paydays. There are a slew of young TEs with upside if everything clicks in the coming years, including Dalton Kincaid, Tucker Kraft and Isaiah Likely. The question is whether anyone can push past Kittle's contract before Bowers.
For the most part, the tight end position hasn't followed the exploding wide receiver market in which 21 players own contracts worth $20 million per year or more. Given their importance to both the run and passing game, as those wide receivers contracts become more expensive, clubs could find bargains at tight end.
