Kyle Juszczyk exclusive: 49ers fullback reflects on George Kittle friendship
Kyle Juszczyk spoke with NBC Sports Bay Area's Jennifer Lee Chan from Tight End University, where he is attending as a coach for the first time.
Kyle Juszczyk exclusive: 49ers fullback reflects on George Kittle friendship originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Video Transcript
The sixth Tight Ends University.
You are finally here.
George just told us that it was actually Travis's idea to get you here.
Wow, George actually admitted that?
I'm surprised.
that is the truth.
You would think my best friend and teammate of 10 years would, extended the invite, but the way it was presented to me, George and I were stretching before practice and, George goes, "Hey, Juice- Yes. "
Travis would love if you would come to Tight End U and teach a fullback class."
So that's great.
Thanks.
I'm happy that Travis said.
But, yeah, so I'm happy he fessed up to it.
All right.
And then you taught a little bit of fullback lessons.
What did you impart?
Because George was saying that it was very insightful.
Yeah.
There's, there's so much crossover now between what I do and what these tight ends are asked to do.
And, so many guys that are If they're not a true Y tight end with their f- their hand in the ground next to the offensive tackle, they get asked to be in the backfield here and there.
And so I just, I, I wanted to help them not feel like such a fish out of water.
I want it to feel a little more natural.
So I was just, I was talking about alignments.
I was talking about using your eyes to manipulate the defense, which I feel like is truly one of my superpowers as a football player, is, has been able to manipulate linebackers with h- which direction I look on, on plays and stuff.
So I was just trying to impart some of those little tricks with them.
So just little things pre-snap can kind of push a linebacker one way or the other?
Absolutely.
pre-snap and post-snap, just kind of where your eyes are at.
And I also talked about, what we say about getting your butt out of the hole.
And so when a linebacker's feeling, when a safety is feeling, and you got the running back right behind you, so many guys can kind of get stalemated or knocked back, but there's, there's a technique to it of kind of attacking their outside leverage.
And in doing so, it gets your butt out of the hole, and it just creates a, a wider hole.
Now, you could've filled in in some tight end roles last year- Yeah while George was out.
What kind of, like what kind of jobs did you have when you were on the field to take that tight end position?
I, I feel like I get asked to do kind of everything.
It just depends who's down that week.
but like now I, I gen- I meet with the tight ends, so I, I know everything that they're being told to do.
and we genuinely, like sometimes we do the exact same stuff, it's just whether it's 21 personnel or 12 personnel.
So it's pretty natural for me to fill in in those situations.
Right.
We saw George running around a little bit today.
Yeah.
How exciting is that to see what he's doing?
It's, it's so cool.
I'm so proud of his work ethic and his commitment to come back from such a gruesome injury like that.
He has not let up one bit since the injury, and he's been so positive about the whole thing.
it literally from minutes after it happened, like the positivity from this guy is just so infectious and he's just constantly, it's always on his mind about how he can get better.
You know, doesn't matter what we're doing, he finds a time to rehab and get a little bit better each day.
And it seems like that's a special part of your locker room.
I mean, Fred Warner didn't have the towel over his head.
I mean, that was a gruesome injury as well.
Like- Yeah he's positive on the, on the cart as he's going out.
I think, this is just my, opinion, I think that positivity genuinely, like your- it will change your brain chemistry and can help you heal faster, and I do feel like that has helped guys like Fred, like George, like Brock.
The guys that are super positive are able to bounce back quicker from injuries.
All right.
The wide receiver room.
George talked about it being one of the biggest improvements from last year.
Yeah.
What have you seen from that group so far?
Man, I, I've seen such a shift.
It's been so awesome to see Mike Evans in person and to be in a Niners jersey.
He has been so dominant and, and something that I don't think we've had in a maybe ever, not in a long time.
his ability to be a true X receiver running individual routes by himself and win against man-to-man coverage I think is gonna open up so much for this offense.
And an offense that's already had a lot of success without it.
So I think we get healthy.
The addition of Mike with Stribling, Christian Kirk, Phelan Black, I think there's a lot of explosive, reliable players that they, they're just gonna take this offense to another level.
And again, it seems like you can already see it even though it's not real football yet.
Right.
Of course.
everybody can look You know, a lot of people can look good in, in shorts and a T-shirt, but I think that is kind of that's been an MO for the Niners is we, we s- excel at being a physical team.
So that part I'm not, I'm not too worried about.
it- it's just about us staying healthy and continuing to do what we've done for years.
Right.
10-year anniversary for you and George.
Yep.
I mean, it's pretty remarkable that you have a teammate for that long.
That doesn't happen in the NFL very often.
Doesn't happen at any level.
George is the, the longest tenured teammate I've had in my entire life.
going back to Pee Wee's, high school, college, you just don't play with people for 10 years.
so it's just, it's really special that him and I have been able to do that at such a great place like San Francisco.
you know, I, I can't say how much I, I, I love the place and to be able to do that with George and for, our families to have the relationships they do, for Kristen and Claire to be best friends and to, you know, have their own YouTube channel together, it, it really is so, so special.
So I'm, I'm so grateful for it.
I mean, and just one final note.
I mean, Kristen and Claire- Right I mean, going through the IVF journey.
Right.
I mean- Right.
It's so special for them to have one another and to be able to go through stuff like that and, and to feel, that comfort and that friendship from one another.
I, I am so thankful for Claire, and I know, Kristen is as well, and, and, and vice versa.
So just, just so thankful for that friendship.
Right.
Kyle, thanks so much for chatting with us.
Yeah.
And have a re- great rest of the time here.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Appreciate it.
