Why Olsen, Hasselbeck believe 49ers star Kittle is underappreciated

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — George Kittle receives a lot of praise for being an all-purpose tight end, but both Greg Olsen and Matt Hasselbeck believe the 49ers' two-time All-Pro deserves even more credit than that. Olsen, the NFL on FOX analyst and a three-time Pro Bowl tight end himself, shared what Kittle brings to the field, particularly in San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan's offense. "There's not a lot of guys like George from a skill-set standpoint," Olsen told NBC Sports Bay Area last week at Tight End University, which Kittle co-hosted with Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce. "The ability to be on the field in an offense that Kyle runs that is very demanding of the tight end position. "We think of the tight end position now as yards and catches, and he obviously gets his, being 1,000 yards a few times in his career. But his ability to be on the field for pass protection, for the run blocking, to really carry the heavy load of a lot of those run schemes and pass designs, where his ability to be physical and his ability to be multiple and athletic and strong at the point of attack and fast and athletic as a puller as a lead blocker - he gets asked to do a lot of different things....