Brock Purdy and George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers have quietly built one of the most efficient quarterback-tight end connections in modern NFL history, according to Pro Football Focus.
Among all quarterback and pass-catcher pairings with at least 75 targets since PFF began tracking grades, Purdy and Kittle rank fourth overall at 0.750 EPA per play — trailing only Justin Fields-DJ Moore, Drew Brees-Kenny Stills and Sam Bradford-Adam Thielen. It’s the best mark of any tight end duo in the sample, edging out Jon Kitna-Jason Witten, and it comes on far more volume than most of the names above them.
Over four seasons from 2022-25, Purdy has targeted Kittle 269 times — more than any other top-15 duo by at least 52 targets — for 3,035 yards, 26 touchdowns and a 139.7 passer rating.
This connection showed up again in 2025. Among all qualifying tight ends (minimum 25 targets), Purdy-Kittle ranked fifth in the NFL at 0.59 EPA per play this past season, with 41 catches on 49 targets for 475 yards, five touchdowns and zero interceptions. It marked a fourth consecutive qualifying season inside the position’s top tier for the duo, and they’ve never had a season finish below 0.58 EPA per play.
Another 49ers tight end finished right before that duo in 2026: Jake Tonges. He ranked sixth at 0.58 EPA per play with Purdy as his quarterback, catching 20 of 27 targets for 213 yards and three touchdowns with a 40.7% positive-play rate that was higher than Kittle’s 36.7% mark on the season. The two 49ers tight ends combined to occupy back-to-back spots on the league-wide list, a rare showing for one team at the position.
For context on just how difficult it is to sustain this level of production, only two tight end connections in the entire PFF era have cracked the top 15 all-time duos by EPA per play at 75-plus targets: Purdy-Kittle and Kitna-Witten. Everyone else on that list is a quarterback-wide receiver pairing, several of them built on smaller, more explosive samples rather than four years of sustained volume.
The numbers back up what’s been the case for the 49ers’ offense throughout the Purdy-Kittle era and, with Tonges emerging as a legitimate second option, San Francisco may now have the makings of one of the league’s most productive tight end rooms.
Kittle might not be himself to start the 2026 season while he recovers from his Achilles injury, but Tonges should be able to fill in nicely — like how he did this past year.
This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: 49ers have one of the best QB-TE duos ever, per PFF
