{"id":348694,"date":"2025-09-07T10:20:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T10:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/348694\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T10:20:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T10:20:10","slug":"49ers-luke-farrell-relishes-dirty-work-as-blocking-tight-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/348694\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers’ Luke Farrell relishes dirty work as blocking tight end"},"content":{"rendered":"

SANTA CLARA \u2013 The 49ers were mostly inert during free agency this offseason, choosing instead to focus on contract extensions with franchise cornerstones Brock Purdy<\/a>, Fred Warner<\/a> and George Kittle<\/a>, while at the same time shedding salary to get younger following a 6-11 season.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t looked upon favorably by a fan base hoping for some star power. There was one exception, and it was a big one in a physical sense. Luke Farrell is not big in terms of name recognition, but he plays big.<\/p>\n

Almost lost in the whirlwind opening days of free agency was the team quickly reaching an agreement with tight end Luke Farrell. While throwing others overboard \u2013 allowing their own free agents to leave, as well as releasing some under contract \u2013 the 49ers extended a hand to Farrell, a 27-year-old four-year veteran with Jacksonville who received a three-year contract with $11 million guaranteed and a maximum value of $20.25 million.<\/p>\n

It was a pretty good chunk of change for a team looking to reduce payroll, especially with the presence of a Hall of Fame candidate in Kittle already on the roster and still in his prime.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve heard from guys that have been there,\u201d Farrell said of former Jaguars teammates who once played for the 49ers. \u201cI like how they operate and the opportunity to play in this offense with these coaches and players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since he arrived in 2017, the year Kittle was drafted, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan has cycled through eight more tight ends \u2013 Garrett Celek, Logan Paulsen, Ross Dwelley (he left and came back last year), Levine Toilolo, Jordan Reed, Tyler Kroft, Eric Saubert and Brayden Williams.<\/p>\n

None received the kind of financial compensation afforded to Farrell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think having a No. 2 tight end in the NFL is huge,\u201d\u00a0 Shanahan said. \u201cUsually, there\u2019s one guy who excels in the pass game and one guy who excels in the run game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farrell, at 6-foot-5, 250 pounds, has just 36 career receptions and has yet to score his first NFL touchdown. But he\u2019s a people mover who operates almost as an extra tackle. Rather than rely solely on angles and leverage, Farrell can actually move the mountains that face him as edge setters or beasts coming on stunts from the interior.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Shae Hammond\/Bay Area News Group<\/p>\n

Tight end Luke Farrell, right, works with Isaac Alarcon during a 49ers blocking drill at the club facility in Santa Clara.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuke, his (game) tape was very, very impressive,\u201d offensive line coach and run game coordinator Chris Foerster said. \u201cHe literally has an impact on defensive ends. When he blocks or hits one, there\u2019s movement. You see things with him that you don\u2019t see in a lot of tight ends.\u201d<\/p>\n

The presence of Farrell, a fifth-round pick out of Ohio State in 2021, will put Kittle in the passing game more often as a receiver, either flexed or put in motion, while he takes care of a big percentage of the dirty work along the line of scrimmage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI take a lot of pride in it,\u201d Farrell said. \u201cSince I was in college, I\u2019ve just really bought into the team mindset and whatever I can do to help propel the offense forward and the team forward and that\u2019s what my role has been. Also, all I can do on special teams. It\u2019s allowed me to have the career I\u2019ve had so far, and I have a lot of gratitude for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attention paid to Kittle could result in Farrell\u2019s first NFL touchdown as well as increased opportunities for Brock Purdy for a reliable set of hands as a receiver.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got unexplored talent in the passing game,\u201d tight ends coach Brian Fleury said.<\/p>\n

Which is fine by Farrell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always in the mindset of wherever they need me, I\u2019m going to be there,\u201d Farrell said. \u201cI\u2019m going to be where I\u2019m supposed to be, when I\u2019m supposed to be there, and that\u2019s as a receiver, too.<\/p>\n

Kittle, like Farrell, was a fifth-round draft pick. He was also from a Big Ten school, Iowa, and has morphed from unassuming rookie with close-cropped hair to big-time, big-haired personality on a national scale.<\/p>\n

Farrell carries with him the same mentality he had at Ohio State, where he was a player simply trying to make a roster at the outset.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t see himself as an NFL player. An excellent student, Farrell\u2019s long-term goal for athletics was staying involved as a physical therapist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a developmental guy at Ohio State, redshirted, and really didn\u2019t get any significant time until my third year,\u201d Farrell said. \u201cThen it was like, `OK, this is a real possibility.\u2019 Once it became possible, I just wanted to keep doing what I was doing and perform the role they wanted me in. When you have success on a team like that, you\u2019re going to get the exposure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farrell cuts an impressive figure among the position group, and Kittle is excited to see what he brings in terms of physicality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like that he\u2019s a big dude. I\u2019m a huge fan of that,\u201d Kittle said. \u201cHe\u2019s got great tape. He\u2019s excited to be here, and I\u2019m excited to get to work with him, too. He\u2019s an experienced guy and has played a lot of reps, so it\u2019s not like you\u2019re teaching a rookie.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the offseason, Farrell attended Tight End University in Nashville, the yearly summit for the position hosted by Kittle and fellow Pro Bowl tight ends Travis Kelce and Greg Olsen. Before that, Farrell\u2019s connection to Kittle came in a Zoom meeting during the COVID pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was on because his dad had a connection with Kevin Wilson, who was our tight ends coach at the time. They both coached at Oklahoma,\u201d Farrell said. \u201cGeorge had some down time, and we were just studying a lot of ball and were trying to pick up any skills we could just from film study.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe hopped on with us, told us what he was about, gave us some of his experience and wisdom, having a handful of years in. (When I signed with the 49ers), he reached out right away and welcomed me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farrell joins the 49ers, a Super Bowl contender, from a Jaguars team that went 4-13 last season after twice going 9-8. In Farrell\u2019s rookie year, they were 3-14, so he knows what a losing locker room can feel like.<\/p>\n

The 49ers, Farrell believes, don\u2019t have the vibe of a team that went 6-11 a year ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you didn\u2019t know what happened last year, you\u2019d have no idea of their record,\u201d Farrell said. \u201cThat\u2019s a testament to the people in the building, and their resiliency and how professional they are. You don\u2019t dwell on the past when you\u2019re looking forward to the season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA CLARA \u2013 The 49ers were mostly inert during free agency this offseason, choosing instead to focus on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,7,6066,125,2812,9461,6,1161,252,2624,2623],"class_list":{"0":"post-348694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-george-kittle","11":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","12":"tag-kyle-shanahan","13":"tag-luke-farrell","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-san-francisco","16":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","17":"tag-sanfrancisco","18":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115162515223188088","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}