Inside Tight End University: George Kittle, Travis Kelce teach the gold standard

Tight End University has captured the football world this week, and for good reason. 

After all, no position group in sports is putting together a three-day summit filled with fun activities like enjoying a concert with some of the best acts in the country, including Taylor Swift, Luke Combs and Kane Brown. 

However, it’s not all play and no work for the 80-plus tight ends who traveled to Nashville. The entire reason TEU was put together by George Kittle, Travis Kelce and Greg Olsen was to elevate the game of all those who attend. 

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Yes, the activities improve connections and friendship off the field. But improvements on the field are what this group strives for each year. 

A prime example was located inside Vanderbilt University’s meeting room on Tuesday morning where, much like during the season with coaches, all the tight ends went through meetings with some of the game’s elite, past and present. 

After Kelce and newest Denver Bronco Evan Engram went through their portion of the meeting, and before Olsen and Jeremy Shockey went through a Q&A session, Fox News Digital was privileged enough to sit in on Kittle’s time in front of the room. 

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The message? “Things Needed to be a Great TE.”

If Kittle wants anything to be soaked in by every tight end in the room before they head off to their respective training camps, it’s knowing what the gold standard of playing the tight end position is. 

Jon Embree, Kittle’s old San Francisco 49ers tight ends coach whom he still gets advice from today, used to leave notecards in his players’ lockers with tidbits about how to “uphold the standard of your tight ends room.”

Kittle asked Embree to make some for the group in Nashville, and everyone was staring directly at the projector screen as the highest-paid tight end in the NFL today read the first line. 

“Be physical in everything you do,” Kittle said as he went down the list from Embree. “With the ball, make the first man miss. …He would always tell me, ‘Don’t get tackled by the first guy. You’re not allowed to get tackled by one guy. If you get tackled by one guy, you’re fined.’”

Two other main points were “Don’t run out of bounds” and “Run game, finish between your man and the ball,” which translates simply to making sure your man you have to block better not be the one making the tackle on the ball carrier. 

Physicality, of course, is needed, no matter what position you play in the NFL. Tight ends are used in a plethora of ways, so they need to be imposing while also being extremely athletic to make catches, and like Embree says, making tacklers miss. 

But Kittle moved on down the notecard to one of the more important pieces of information: “We have to know more than anyone but QB.” He previously gave a good anecdote to explain why it’s so important, as he walked into the 49ers’ locker room after his first half of his first-ever preseason game in the NFL.

Kittle thought he had done fine, but Embree saw things differently.

“I’ve never gotten my a– ripped more in my entire life,” Kittle said. “It was the only time Coach Embree has ever ripped my a– in my entire life. Just kinda made a lightbulb go off in my head about how real this s— is, specifically for you rookies. How this is your job and this is a chance to impact you for the rest of your life. This is the best opportunity you’re ever going to have in your entire life.”

Kittle hit the playbook hard and realized the tight end needs to “know the whole concept” of plays, which allows them to communicate with teammates no matter the situation. 

After all, Embree’s next notecard explained why it’s important to know what everyone’s doing on every play. 

“Our job description is to block, catch passes, pass [protect], and play special teams,” Kittle read to the room. 

Tight ends truly have to do it all, and the great ones in the NFL separate themselves by being that guy coaches can trust to get the job done whether it’s blocking an elite defensive end in pass pro, or running the perfect route to pick up a big gain. 

It’s one thing to read it in the classroom, but Kittle loved the final part of his speech: showing highlights of everyone in the room. 

Of course, he had to drop in his own big plays, but he started with a fundamental play for Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs superstar, against the Atlanta Falcons. 

“Getting vertical,” or making a catch and moving upfield quickly, is what every pass-catcher is tasked with in the NFL. Kittle emphasized Kelce’s usage of a quick first step that turned a “four-yard pass into a 10-yard gain.” 

There was also Super Bowl-champion Dallas Goedert of the Philadelphia Eagles showcasing the “don’t go out of bounds” note from Embree, as he shoved a Green Bay Packers corner off him three separate times while running for a touchdown. 

From Sam LaPorta’s 50-plus-yard run blocking, to Mark Andrews, Isaiah Likely and Trey McBride being dependable targets for their quarterbacks in real time, Kittle went through a gauntlet of plays that showcased everything Tight End University is about: how to reach the gold standard of playing the position. 

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“You go into the classroom, and you hear George and Travis talk about stuff, they’re looking at everything a little bit different,” Goedert said. “You can find what you correlate with them, so it’s just a great way to learn little things, and hopefully improve your game a little bit each time you come here.”

Engram added: “There are 80-something guys out here, and it’s to help make everyone else better. We’re ultimately supposed to be competing against one another, but it’s just not the nature of these guys. Everyone’s here to make one another better, to share tidbits of information, spare knowledge, and that’s the coolest part for me.”

Every player in the room shares the same passion and goals within the game of football, and they all want to be the best they can be to help their team. 

To do so, Kittle’s message to the group is truly one to aspire to, no matter how many years those players have in the league.

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“I just think it should be played a certain way,” Kittle told Fox News Digital. “I think guys should want to play a certain way, should want to do everything right. The tight end position, you run-block, you pass [protect], you catch the ball, you run around, you score touchdowns. You do everything, so why not be great at everything? That’s what I want to show off. 

“It means a lot, too, when we have a platform to stand up there in front of all the league’s tight ends and hype up the guys who are sitting there playing really well. A little positive reinforcement goes a long way and to say, ‘Hey, this is being noticed by guys all around the league. These are great plays and this is what you need to do if you want to get to this level of play.’”

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