49ers’ Celek secure but not satisfied
In 2012, before the 49ers’ preseason finale, then-undrafted rookie tight end Garrett Celek expected to be cut when the roster was pared to 53 players two days later.
“The way it was playing out,” Celek said, “I thought I was going to be on the practice squad.”
In 2017, after the 49ers signed free-agent tight end Logan Paulsen, who had played for just-hired head coach Kyle Shanahan in Washington, Celek assumed he soon would be released.
“I figured he was my replacement,” Celek said. “I thought ‘This is Kyle’s guy. We’re very similar. We’re blocking (tight ends). I might
be on the outs here.’ ” Instead, Celek stayed in Santa Clara. Celek, 30, now in his eighth season, is the 49ers’ second-longest-tenured player behind left tackle Joe Staley, a first-round pick who has remained because he’s a perennial Pro Bowler who plays a premium position.
Celek? He’s the anti-Staley. He was bypassed in the 2012 draft after a 14catch career at Michigan State. In the NFL, in which he had eight catches in his first three seasons, it wasn’t just in 2012 and 2017 that he pondered a potential pink slip.
“I would say,” Celek said when asked about his bottom-of-the-roster anxiety, “the first four years were like that.”
So how has Celek survived four head coaches and two general managers? How has he stayed longer than two tight ends drafted during his tenure and, yes, Paulsen? And how has he easily outlasted his more heralded peers from 2012? Every member of the 49ers’ seven-man draft class from that year was off the roster by 2015.
The answers are about as flashy as Celek, a 6-foot-5, 252-pounder who was an offensive lineman in high school.
“It always starts with the talent,” Shanahan said, “but then it goes to the person, and he’s a guy you know what you’re going to get every single day.”
Said quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo: “He’s consistent every day: comes in early, stays late. You put in the time, good things will happen. If you work hard, good things will happen.”
And tight end George Kittle: “He’s just a guy that’s always in the right place at the right time. He knows what he’s supposed to be doing. And he just takes advantage of every single opportunity.”
Celek’s blocking ability got him in the NFL, and his improvement as a receiver has helped him stick.
In the past three seasons, he has had 69 catches for 872 yards and 10 touchdowns. Since 2015, his touchdown total leads the 49ers and is one fewer than Pro Bowl tight ends Greg Olsen and Jason Witten. And Celek’s yards-percatch average (12.6) ranks ninth among tight ends with at least 50 receptions over that span.
His development earned him a modest four-year extension before the 2016 season that included $3.5 million fully guaranteed. For Celek, it meant he could exhale briefly — before discovering job security didn’t suit him.
In 2016, “I felt like ‘OK, they finally have invested money in me — I don’t have to be freaked out,’ ” Celek said. “Obviously, I couldn’t feel like I could calm down and not play as hard. It was just like I could relax and feel my position is somewhat safe. That was the one season that I felt like that. But I don’t even like that feeling because I got so used to feeling like my job was on the line — I played better that way sometimes.”
Celek will survive final roster cuts for the eighth straight year when the 49ers trim the roster to 53 players Saturday. He’s the No. 2 tight end behind Kittle and his primary backup spot was not threatened this summer by Cole Hikutini, 24, or Cole Wick, 24.
Last season, Celek began to feel more secure about his place on the roster when he learned that he was on Shanahan’s radar before free agency in 2016. Shanahan, then the Falcons’ offensive coordinator, was studying Celek, who didn’t reach the open market because he signed his extension.
“He said (to reporters) some time last year that he always liked me as a tight end,” Celek said. “I never knew that. We never had that conversation or anything like that. So I never knew how they felt about me, but it was good to hear.”
It’s possible Celek could realize a dream that once seemed laughable by playing 10 seasons with the 49ers. If he can finish the 2020 season with the team, he would join Brent Jones as the only tight ends in franchise history to have a 10-year career, all spent with the 49ers.
To realize his goal, he’s eliminated some offseason fun.
Celek and his wife of four years, Sarah, previously celebrated their July 12 wedding anniversary with trips to Europe, Hawaii and Big Sur. This summer, they stayed home in Cincinnati, so Celek could prepare for training camp.
“It was just like, these young guys are slowly creeping up on me,” Celek said. “It was pretty boring. I’d work out, come home, not really do anything. My wife had some house duties for me and I never really got around to doing them. But from here on out, that’s what I’m doing. It makes coming back to training camp a lot easier.”
At some point, Celek, now six years removed from sweating out his first roster cut, embraced how to make his anxiety-filled career easier.
His secret to survival? It’s simple, but hard to do.
“You just do your job,” Celek said. “The biggest thing is to not worry about other crap. Because as soon as you start doing that, you get distracted and you forget what the most important thing is, and that’s just doing your job. And that’s all I’ve tried to survive by.”