I love Kyle Juszczyk, you love Kyle Juszczyk but that doesn’t mean the 49ers weren’t right the first time when they released him last week only to bring him back this weekend on a new cheap two-year deal. They tell you your first instinct is almost always right and the 49ers was, so why did they reverse course? The team developed a hardline stance with NFL free agency in 2025. More cutthroat, less cuddly. The Juice signing flies in the face of that, so what gives? I think the 49ers got sick of the backlash from all those moves, the fans complained via the only way a team will listen, with their wallets. Fans likely complained with threats of canceling season tickets, major sponsors could have threatened to pull dollars and one of the most popular players returns. That’s the only explanation, because the best thing Kyle Juszczyk does at this point of his career is make the fans and his teammates smile. He’s a great locker room guy, a leader, a winner. He’s good with the media and fans. He’s best friends with George Kittle and Christian McCaffery. Players and coaches respect him. Problem is, the team doesn’t use him enough when he is on the field, which is less than half the time and the best attribute of a fullback is blocking and he’s just okay at that. Plus the 49ers already replaced him with their biggest signing in free agency, tight end Luke Farrell who inked a reported three-year $20.25 million deal to….Block. Between Farrell and Juszczyk, the average pay per season is $10 million. Not a ton, but consider the 49ers said no to their most irreplaceable free agent, linebacker Dre Greenlaw for just over $11 million per season over 3 years. what would you rather have? No a hard choice.
The issue isn’t Juszczyk, it’s how the 49ers utilize him, which isn’t enough to justify his return even at a low salary number.
- Overall Juszczyk was on the field for 49.7% of the 49ers offensive plays in 2024 (537/1079)
- He was involved with the ball either by running, receiving or being targeted on a throw on 36 plays of the 1,079 the 49ers ran in 2024 (5 runs, 19 receptions, 12 additional incomplete targets), for a total of 219 yards and two touchdowns. That’s 3% of total plays he was a runner or receiver, accounting for 3% of the 49ers total yards on offense which was 6,397. That means 97% of the time he was not directly involved in the play and he played in less than half the overall plays on offense. It’s not his fault he is so under utilized. He did run 245 routes of the 293 pass plays he was on the field, only to be targeted just 31 times or 13% of the time. It also means he only pass blocked on 48 plays in 2024, so there isn’t much value there.
- He must be one hell of a run blocker right? The first thing you’ll notice in the graphic below is there are only eight qualified fullbacks in the league with amount of plays on the field ranging from 174 to Juice at 537. I’m being kind when I say eight teams utilize a fullback because only Juszczyk and Baltimore’s Patrick Ricard played over 400 snaps, and Buffalo and Denver played their fullbacks less than 200 snaps. NFL teams on average run about 1,000 snaps per season, so those players participated in about 17-18% of the teams snaps and played mostly on special teams. So really only six teams used a fullback on a semi-regular basis. This means 26 of the 32 NFL teams use a combo tight end to play fullback or as a move tight end to accomplish what a fullback alone used to do. Why have two players do what one can do? The 49ers signed a blocking only tight end, Luke Ferrell to the largest outside contract of their offseason, a 3-year $20.25 million deal to do just this. Suffice to say Juszczyk is redundant now on a team clearly trimming the fat.
- As far as his numbers blocking, they are average. He has a slightly above average number pass blocking at 72.9 (On only 48 plays), and a slightly below average run blocking number at 69.7. (On 239 plays), Ferrell, who is coming over from Jacksonville is a bigger player with better blocking numbers.
- Juszczyk was on the field for 293 pass snaps and 244 run snaps in 2024.
- The breakdown on Juszczyk: 537/1079 offensive plays 49.7%. Carries 5, catches 19, targets 31. Run blocking 239 (45% of his plays), passing game as a receiver on routes 245 (46% of his plays), targeted on 13% of his routes. Doesn’t pass block much, below average run blocker (69.7).
49ERS FORMATIONS IN 2024:
This is how the 49ers lined up on the field and will likely continue this trend in 2025:
47.9%: 11 Personnel: (3 WR, 1 TE, 1 RB): WR: Aiyuk (Robinson), Jennings, Pearsall TE: Kittle RB: McCaffery
34.8%: 21 Personnel: (2 RB, 1 TE, 2 WR): RB: McCaffery, Juszczyk, TE: Kittle WR: Aiyuk, Jennings.
7.4%: 12 Personnel: (2 TE, 2 WR, 1 RB): TE: Kittle, Luke Ferrell, WR: Aiyuk, Jennings, RB: McCaffery
4.3% 22 Personnel (2 TE, 2 RB, 1 WR): TE: Kitle, Farrell, RB: McCaffery, Juszczyk, WR: Aiyuk
Point here is Ferrell, who the 49ers just signed as their biggest free agent of 2025 at 3-years and $20.25 million would only be on the field for two sets 12 and 22 for 11.7% of the snaps. When George Kittle was healthy last season he played in 91% of the snaps (808/884) and overall #2 tight end Eric Saubert played on only 35% of the total offensive snaps. This would have left plenty of time for Farrell to replace Juice as the primary short yardage fullback or move tight end, which is what 75% of the teams in the NFL do. Juszczyk will continue to play in less than half the snaps as he did last season because the 49ers only employed two back sets on 39.1% of their snaps.
LUKE FERRELL:
Before the 49ers released Juszczyk the first time, they replaced him. Luke Ferrell is a 6’5 250 blocking only tight end, his career proves it and he’s pretty good at it.
- In 2024, Ferrell had a career high in targets (17) and receptions (12). He had 67 receiving yards and zero touchdowns.
- He ran 101 routes, 17 targets and a passer rating when targeted of just 53.8. His average depth of target was 4.5 yards, a sign of a dump off player, not a threat down the field or in the seam. He was targeted one time in the red zone in 2024 (week 17), clearly not a pass catcher. He’s entering his 5th NFL season, so he likely is what he is.
- He played in all 17 games last season for Jacksonville with 390 of the 1025 total snaps, 38%.
- Farrell has 36 catches in four seasons in the NFL with zero touchdowns.
- He blocked on 289 of his 390 snaps last season, 74%.
- As you can see below he is a very good pass blocker with a PFF rating of 82.6, which was second in the NFL. His 61.9 run blocking grade needs to improve, but I would think the 49ers saw enough with his pass black skills to know they can improve the run blocking number.
I like Kyle Juszczyk. Bringing him back won’t cost much, but this offseason was as much about purging the old ((Juszczyk is 33, Ferrell is 27), as it was clearing the books. This was a team that made a a lot of business decisions this offseason. Cold and calculated ones void of emotion. However when all the backlash came in the 49ers decided to make another business decision, give warm and cuddly one last chance because of the reactions to a disaster of an offseason. His double take return was not football, they already had him replaced, this was business. Throw the angry fans and sponsors a bone, because everybody loves Juice.