Bhan-No catches. No problem.George Kittle’s return wasn’t about numbers — it was about presence. The 49ers played looser, tougher, and hungrier the moment he stepped back in. Sometimes leadership can’t be measured, only felt.

George Kittle was back, and the impact in one phase of the 49ers game was immediate.

Atlanta Falcons v San Francisco 49ers | Lachlan Cunningham/GettyImages

Like most men of my generation, I tend to reduce most of my life decisions and opinions to quotes from Moneyball.

George Kittle’s performance on Sunday Night Football against the Atlanta Falcons could be summed up as one of those.

“Billy…” (my name’s actually John, but let’s go with it…) “George had no catches, didn’t impact the passing game at all, and he didn’t appear in the box score. Why do you like him?”

“Because he gets on base.”

In this case, “on base” was helping to be a part of fixing the Niners’ much-maligned run game. It was maligned for a reason, of course, as it had been mostly putrid all season, averaging an appalling 3 yards per carry, especially when one considers the Hall of Fame-level running back the team has in Christian McCaffrey.

There were more reasons than Kittle’s absence. The interior offensive line has been in a state of flux, and it did massively improve on Sunday night, particularly with the effort of the likes of backup center Matt Hennessy.

But you can’t argue with the numbers.

That’s a sharp and significant difference, and it led to one of McCaffrey’s best games from scrimmage in quite some time, and it helped backup Brian Robinson, too: 100 rushing yards in the first half (a first since the end of 2023) led to 174 net rushing yards overall, and the two vital touchdowns. There were also seven runs of 10 or more yards for McCaffrey, an explosive element to the 49ers offense that has been sorely missing throughout the year.

Quite apart from the fact that a San Francisco team that can run the ball looks a lot more like “itself” (this was probably the closest to a true Kyle Shanahan offense the team has looked like all year), it’s simply morale-boosting and helps everyone else play as a unit, too. The less quarterback Mac Jones has to do to win the game, the better.

It also quiets the strange narrative that McCaffrey has “lost a step.” While I’ve never believed that myself, it’s been a popular refrain among some 49ers content creators. It’s difficult, however, to show any steps when your run blocking isn’t present.

Kittle’s return changed all that.

Kittle’s mere presence requires teams to account for him. Gaps get significantly wider, and that helps the interior offensive line, particularly against the stacked boxes the 49ers traditionally face. However, Kittle may also be the best run-blocking tight end in the entire league, and his sheer force of will seems to lift the players around him.

In a season where the 49ers are lacking injured leaders like quarterback Brock Purdy, linebacker Fred Warner and defensive end Nick Bosa, Kittle’s return was not only welcome but seemed to hit the turbo button on the Niners rushing attack and inspired them to better heights.

His time will surely come in the passing game. A quiet game is not in itself a huge surprise, as no receiver distinguished themselves on Sunday night. That’s probably by design, as going into the game, most observers thought that the 49ers were likely to feed McCaffrey significantly anyway against Atlanta’s poor run defense.

In the absence of Warner and with a young defense, ball control was also the name of the game, with long drives and keeping the opposition off the field key to being a success.

Thankfully, the 49ers had their best offensive player back to help get them there. Is there a better all-round offensive player in football? Like fullback Kyle Juszczyk, Kittle represents the heart and soul of everything that Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch have tried to build since arriving in 2017.

Catching the ball or not, Kittle makes an impact, and that usually means good things for the 49ers.