San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle is one of six players nominated for the FedEx Air & Ground Player of Week 8 Award after posting six catches for 128 yards and touchdown versus the Dallas Cowboys. With these impressive numbers, the All-Pro veteran was also able to hit a couple of career milestones, eclipsing 500 career receptions and moving into the No. 3 spot on the franchises all-time receiving yards leaders list (6,777 yards). Kittle now sits behind Hall of Fame wide receivers Jerry Rice and Terrell Owens. The cherry on top of Kittle's standout performance is that it went down on National Tight Ends Day, a league-wide holiday he helped create.
"Kittle's the man, especially on his holiday. He usually does better," head coach Kyle Shanahan said following the win over Dallas. "But, there were a couple things in the first half that he, just like Brock Purdy, missed. A couple he would've loved to have back, and he came back in the second half and just played as well as you can."
More Information on the FedEx Air & Ground Player Award History:
The FedEx Air and Ground NFL Players of the Week Awards are new and improved for the 2024 season. In addition to quarterbacks and running backs, wide receivers and tight ends are now eligible to be recognized as the FedEx Air & Ground NFL Players of the Week. Unlike years past, fans are no longer restricted to selecting one top air and one top ground performer of the week. Instead, fans can vote for their top two performers from a group of six standout offensive players from the full week of NFL action.
Voting for weekly nominees is open each week of the regular season from Monday morning to Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. ET at NFL.com/FedEx. Fans can also vote on X (formerly Twitter) via the NFL published polls at @NFL and on the NFL Mobile App.
While the criteria for the players has changed, the charitable driving force of the program remains the same. For the 2024-25 season, FedEx will once again proudly work with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund to make donations of $2,000 in the names of the two winning players ($4,000 total) to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) across the country every week.
