The 49ers have been on the hunt for an additional dynamic tight end to help diversify that portion of their roster. George Kittle is one of the NFL’s best at the position, and Ross Dwelley and Charlie Woerner have mostly been blockers to this point in their short careers. San Francisco, in an attempt to add a better pass-catching threat to that group, is set to work out free agent TE MyCole Pruitt according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
Pruitt is an interesting player in terms of his fit in San Francisco and what he adds as a pass catcher.
Blocking has been Pruitt’s primary function in the NFL since the Vikings selected him in the fifth round of the 2015 draft. Across his six seasons he’s played in 63 games and caught only 32 balls for 343 yards and four touchdowns. Most of that productivity came in the last three years when he played for the Titans. With Tennessee he caught 20 passes for 241 yards and all four of his touchdowns in 42 games.
His athletic profile reflects what looks like a potentially dangerous pass catcher. He’s 6-2, 245 pounds and ran a 4.58 in the 40-yard dash (90th percentile among TEs) with a 1.6 10-yard split (77th percentile). Pruitt’s 38-inch vertical jump landed in the 93rd percentile.
To this point he’s just never been used as a pass catcher, and the 49ers may be aiming to change that if they add him to their already-established group. They carried four tight ends last year with Kittle, Dwelley, Woerner and the recently-retired Jordan Reed. Pruitt hasn’t been nearly as prolific as Reed as a receiver, but it’s easy to see how the team may want to work him out to see if he can be deployed in similar ways.
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