San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle is looking to bounce back in 2022 with Trey Lance under center. Will Kittle produce enough to be on your fantasy football roster, and what is his current ADP in fantasy drafts?
George Kittle ADP | Is he worth his current price in fantasy drafts?
Kittle’s current ADP is 40th overall as the fourth tight end selected in fantasy drafts. This means he’s being taken in the fourth round of standard leagues. Other players drafted in his range include Kyle Pitts and Darren Waller.
PFN’s 2022 TE fantasy football rankings have Kittle as the 67th overall player at TE5 in PPR leagues. Kittle missed three games last year after missing eight the previous season. His durability, or lack thereof, is becoming a bigger concern for fantasy managers as he turns 29 in October.
The 49ers’ transition to Trey Lance from Jimmy Garoppolo is another area of concern. Lance targeted Kittle a whopping 10 of 18 total attempts in his first start against Seattle last year, but that number reduced to only two targets in their second game together in Week 17. Brandon Aiyuk took Kittle’s targets instead.
There may be more variance week to week for Kittle with the young passer. It’s harder to deal with missing several games each year if Kittle is in and out of the lineup as he has been in four of his five seasons.
Kittle’s projected fantasy value in 2022
The top tight end tiers don’t have a lot of depth in them. For me, I have Kittle even below Dalton Schultz, considering his injury woes and uncertain place within a passing game that is bound to see a decrease in efficiency but a possible increase in explosive plays.
Still, it’s hard to envision any outcome outside of a major injury where Kittle doesn’t land in the top six TEs. He’ll continue to benefit from an offense that must feature him and constantly works to get him into space. Lance can execute the passing game enough to get Kittle near his career averages.
The hope is we will see Kittle more involved in the red zone in 2022. He caught 8 of 9 targets for 54 yards and four scores. But the reality is it’s unlikely to happen based on Kyle Shanahan’s usage of him.
We’d love to see Kittle get double those targets, and he could ascend to a top-three tight end if he does. There’s no reason he should again rank 13th in red-zone production, considering his talent. Even Tyler Higbee, Dawson Knox, and Hunter Henry vastly outproduced him — it’s purely because of opportunities.
Higbee and Henry are going undrafted or very late despite their scoring output in the red zone. Knox is considered to be in the weird middle tier of barely productive enough as a starting fantasy tight end. And yet, he thoroughly outplayed Kittle in the most important part of the field.
In eight games in 2020, Kittle only earned four targets within the red zone. He was 26th in 2019 with 17. He only scored twice, which dragged his fantasy points within the 20 down significantly.
Kittle is still a good starting tight end, even if he doesn’t win in traditional ways. Unfortunately, his upside is capped unless he gets more traditional targets.
