49ers Kyle Juszczyk thankful to be a surprising 201 games in and a fan favorite – The Athletic

SANTA CLARA — Quick, who is the only player in the NFL whose nickname is yelled out every time he touches the ball, home or away?

It’s happened 20 times this season, as he is better known for moving people out of the way — like he did blocking on Christian McCaffrey’s touchdown run on Monday night.

“The first time I heard it, I thought they were booing him,” left tackle Trent Williams said, laughing, on Wednesday. “It’s pretty cool.”

It’s not lost on 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk — a nine-time Pro Bowler — how improbable it is when the loud “Juice!” dull roar hits. After all, he was a tight end at Harvard who once had a list of NFL practice-squad salaries.

“‘Damn, if I could just make the practice squad,’” Juszczyk said, remembering. “‘I could make a couple of thousand bucks a week. That’d be dope.’”

Now, here he is, having just celebrated playing in his 200th career game and heading back home to the Cleveland area to play the Browns on Sunday. It really hit him two weeks ago, in the visiting locker room at Arizona, after that 200th game, a 41-22 win. It was where he sat after the 2024 season finale, wondering if he had played his last game as a 49er after eight seasons.

“It’s just wild how much has changed since that time,” he said, “and how appreciative I am that I am back here and I’m back with this team and I am on this journey with them, and I just couldn’t be happier.”

The 49ers released Juszczyk in the offseason before re-signing him days later. The 18 receptions for 160 yards and two carries for negative-three yards don’t scratch the surface of his importance to their offense this season, as he lines up in different spots and dictates what coach Kyle Shanahan gets in the coverages from opposing defenses.

The game slows down for the fullback just like it does for elite quarterbacks. If someone misses a block, Juszczyk cleans it up.

“The way he can maneuver through fronts with a lot of stuff going on,” Shanahan said. “Even when it isn’t the guy, even when other people take the wrong guy, and he can just naturally adjust and go take their guy, like you wouldn’t even notice someone made a bust.

“When we throw the ball to him, it doesn’t matter how big of a moment, what the situation is, he always comes down with it. He gets up the field after the catch as good as anyone on our team and just one of the better football players I have ever been around.”

Juszczyk was one of the best players the Lodi, Ohio, area ever saw, playing everywhere on offense and hitting everyone as an all-state linebacker. Juszczyk grew up a Jets fan because the Browns had just left town, and his older brothers had already claimed the Cowboys and Packers.

He wears No. 44 because his favorite player growing up was Colts tight end Dallas Clark. Juszczyk thought he would catch a lot of passes at Harvard until his coach, Tim Murphy, pulled him aside before his first game.

“He was like, ‘Listen, Juice, I want to play you out there, but I can’t just run you out there for pass plays only,’” Juszczyk said. “He’s like, ‘You’re gonna have to learn how to block if you’re gonna want to run routes.’

“And to this day, like 17 years later, like that’s really my motivation on run plays. If I can do well on this run play, they’re gonna keep me out there, and now I’ll get some opportunities to catch the ball.”

Juszczyk doesn’t even think of himself as a fullback in Shanahan’s offense.

“I have been able to adapt the more that is asked of me,” he said. “I don’t even look at what I do now as, like, a fullback role. So many times, I’m on the line of scrimmage.

“I feel like fullback things are truly when you’re like in the I formation or offset I. All that other stuff, I really see as tight end, H back type of stuff, and something that I’ve always felt comfortable doing.”

Juszczyk also credits Murphy with the “Juice” chant. He was the only one who called him that, and he passed it to his friend, Ravens coach John Harbaugh. The Ravens drafted Juszczyk in the fourth round in 2013, and their fans picked up on it, yelling it at home games in his last four years there.

Niners fans have taken it to another level. You always see Juszczyk smiling whenever he does catch the ball and hears it.

“It definitely pumps me up,” he said. “The way the Faithful takes over stadiums is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before, and to feel that love is pretty cool.”

But the fullback from Ohio is more excited about the 49ers winning Sunday and improving to 9-4 than he is about any talk of himself.

“I feel great about where we’re positioned,” he said. “We’ve got a one-game season. Like, it is all about getting ready for Cleveland, taking care of business. I think anybody would have taken 9-4 in the beginning of the year, even before people went down.”