George Kittle loves Travis Kelce’s new contract with Chiefs

George Kittle is excited to see the new contracts given to tight ends lately.

George Kittle said it best. When it comes to the financial ceiling over the heads of the best tight ends in the National Football League, it’s just exploded.

Just one week ago, the highest paid tight end in the league was Hunter Henry of the Los Angeles Chargers at $10.6 million in average annual salary. Yet even that was a misnomer, considering that Henry is on a one-year deal with the Bolts. Instead, the real top annual salary is slightly lower—or was slightly lower—at $10.5 million, given to Austin Hooper by the Cleveland Browns just a few months back.

At the time, there was a major disparity between players catching passes under the banner of tight end and those at wide receiver. A player like, say, Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs could eclipse 1,000 yards receiving or 100 receptions on the year and make half the amount given to the elite players at wide receiver, simply due to the position played on paper.

Seven days later, the Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers helped bridge the gap between the positions by rewarding Kelce and George Kittle with brand new contracts. Kittle was up first when he signed a five-year contract worth $75 million to stay in the Bay Area for the rest of his prime years. As for the Chiefs, Kelce was going to enter a contract year in 2021. Instead, the Chiefs added four more years worth up to $57.25 million—good for an average of $14.3 million annually.

While receivers are still regularly paid more than tight ends—and the elite are now eclipsing $20 million annually—tight ends have made up half the difference. That’s a major shift in what was a very deadened market for quite some time. Kittle was excited by the consecutive contracts and spoke out about the change.

"“I think overall tight ends are occasionally forgot about or not advertised enough,” Kittle said. “And I think the fact that guys are exploding through the ceiling that was set with me, Travis Kelce got a fantastic new deal, I know Ertz is about to get one and the guys that are just blowing through that, it’s fun to see and I think tight ends will just continue to prove that we’re worth a lot to the team.”"

Of course, not every tight end is going to be able to prove himself at the level of a Kittle or Kelce. The reality is that the pair are easily considered the best tight ends in the NFL at this point, and anyone else—maybe Zach Ertz of the Philadelphia Eagles—is a distant third. That is, unless Rob Gronkowski is able to return to form in his comeback with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Nevertheless, a very good or great tight end can know that his earning power is that much stronger going forward in a league that just raised the ceiling for position by 40 percent in the last few days. That’s good news for the players at a position who have gone under-appreciated for far too long.