It didn’t take long for Charlie Woerner to impress San Francisco 49ers’ All-Pro tight end George Kittle, and it wasn’t during player-organized workouts when he hauled in an incredible deep pass either. In fact, it was when Woerner got a little tedious during passing reps and asked about blocking schemes.
Kittle joined Barstool Sports’ podcast Pardon My Take last week and shared how excited he is to work with Woerner.
“I’m excited. Charlie’s a good dude,” Kittle said. “We were actually running routes together, and he was like, ‘Hey, this passing stuff is kind of boring. When are we going to start talking about run game?’
“And I was like, ‘You’re my guy. I needed that out of you.'”
Kittle is regarded as one of the best tight ends in the NFL and is known for taking pride in his blocking abilities. He gets fulfillment from imposing a block against a defender downfield, and providing lanes for a running back rather than making a big play himself.
“The first thing my college strength coach said to me was if you want to play tight end at Iowa, you have to learn how to run-block,” Kittle said last year. “So that’s something I took a lot of pride in, and I still do to this day.
“I personally think if you can move a guy from point A to point B against his will, that’s a better feeling than scoring a touchdown, in my opinion. If you can put a guy on his back and he doesn’t want to be on his back, it’s a great feeling. There is not much that can beat that.”
Woerner, who’s been known for his blocking abilities while at Georgia, is very similar to Kittle in that way.
“I’m super pumped to be in the tight end room with [Kittle],” Woerner said in April after being drafted. “As a guy who blocks a lot at Georgia, I just loved watching him play. Just the way he played at the 49ers this year and how aggressive he is in the blocking game. I love to emulate him and try to be like him in my game.”
The former Rabun County High School standout signed with the Bulldogs as apart of their 2016 recruiting class. He was ranked the nation’s No. 138 overall prospect and the No. 16 player in Georgia, per the 247Sports Composite.
Woerner played in 12 games in 2016 as a freshman while starting two of them. That year he hauled in five passes for 50 yards while being a member of the 2016-17 First-Year SEC Academic Honor Roll. His role expanded in 2017 as a sophomore where he played in 14 of 15 games, and set a career-high in the Rose Bowl by hauling in three passes for 21 yards.
Through the next two seasons Woerner played in all 28 games and started 16 of them. His first career touchdown was a 20-yard catch against Georgia Tech in 2019. At the end of last season, he was named co-winner of the Frank Sinkwich Award, which is given to the toughest player on the team at the team’s post-season awards gala. He was drafted in the sixth-round by the 49ers in the 2020 NFL Draft.