George Kittle has burst onto the scene in the last two years as arguably the best tight end in the NFL. He did so as a former fifth-round pick out of Iowa with almost no college production.
Brycen Hopkins was taken by the Rams a round earlier, but he aspires to be a similar tight end as Kittle has become for the 49ers – a tight end who’s equal parts receiver and blocker.
“You know, I always want to say George Kittle,” Hopkins said when asked which tight ends he wants to model his game after. “I think he’s got the best of both worlds, he’s the best tight end, but just the way that he always plays disciplined in the receiving game and in the blocking game with his technique and his fundamentals, but also as an athlete, I think that’s something that I admire the most about him as a player. As much as I can mirror myself after him, I would love to do that. Also, another player, Mark Andrews, Zach Ertz – other players like that.”
Hopkins comes into the NFL as a better receiver than blocker, but his hands are questionable at times. He dropped 22 passes in his career at Purdue, most of which were the result of him taking his eyes off the ball and trying to turn upfield.
That can happen sometimes when you’re as fast and athletic as he is in the open field, trying to gain big yardage after the catch. He wants to improve his concentration at the catch point to hopefully eliminate those drops.
“I think one of my strengths is my ability to create separation at the top of routes and use athleticism and go up and get the ball,” he said. “I want to become a more consistent catcher. I don’t have bad hands. I just think that I can concentrate more on that ball and look it in and then my drop rate would go way down. I would just be able to become that more consistent catcher that everyone wants to see out of me.”
Kittle’s hands are as good as they come for a pass-catcher, so Hopkins is on the right track with those aspirations. He only dropped two passes on 107 targets last season, a drop rate of only 1.9%, which was fifth-best among all receivers with at least 100 targets.
Hopkins has the makings of a dynamic tight end, he just needs to put it all together – and he’s picked a pretty good player to model his game after.