SANTA CLARA — The streets of San Francisco are paying off as Colton McKivitz’s offseason training ground.
Specifically, Vallejo and Kearny streets. He’d run Telegraph Hill four to five times a week, just a few blocks down from Coit Tower.
It has all evidently conditioned him for the rigors of training camp and his third season as the 49ers’ starting right tackle.
“A lot of it was mental, and just seeing how far you’re going to push yourself, because by running Vallejo and Kearney, nothing is going to be as hard physically on the football field as that, running up those hills on concrete,” McKivitz said after Tuesday’s practice. “I feel I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been, physically and mentally. The streets work.”
McKivitz is listed as a 6-foot-6, 301-pound sixth-year veteran. His body changed this offseason, however. He added eight pounds of muscle, leaned his frame by cutting body fat, and primed himself for an upcoming contract year.
“I’m definitely not as winded. I feel in a lot better shape,” said McKivitz, who’s delivered impressive one-on-one reps against defensive ends Nick Bosa and Mykel Williams. “I’ve seen my body change. I’ve seen some growth, obviously, physically — and mentally.
San Francisco 49ers’ Colton McKivitz (68) practices at the San Francisco 49ers’ practice facility in Santa Clara, Calif., on Wednesday, June 11, 2025. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
“That was a big part of it. I mean, when you’re running those streets and you look up it, you want to quit right away or don’t even want to start it. Then you have to run it again, run it backward, and do broad jumps up and down it.”
He didn’t conquer those hills alone. And he wasn’t just spurred along by his trainer, Tareq Azim of Empower Performance Institute. “It was cool to see locals run it with me, too. That was different,” McKivitz said. “You get to embrace the city.”
The 49ers officially moved their games out of San Francisco in 2014 to Levi’s Stadium. McKivitz reveled in this summer’s romance with “The City” and its active yet curious inhabitants.
“They’d wave and be like, ‘Can I run with you?’ Sure enough, a 50-year-old guy comes running, and a couple other marathon runners with us,” McKivitz said. “They’d sprint up the hill and I’d try chasing after them. They were super polite. They’d give you a weird stare.
“You’re dodging Waymos and bikes,” McKivitz continued. “But it’s just cool to embrace the city this team is (representing). Not a lot of guys do it but it’s just a cool place to work.”
Thus, he didn’t mind driving up from his South Bay home with his dog, Cedar. His offseason wasn’t all work and no play. He and his wife, Abby, were married in June in Iowa, and he still had time for his fix of hunting and fishing.
MORGANTOWN, WV – OCTOBER 22: Colton McKivitz #53 of the West Virginia Mountaineers in action during the game against the TCU Horned Frogs at Mountaineer Field on October 22, 2016 in Morgantown, West Virginia. (Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images)
McKivitz was a multi-sport high school star at Union Local in Jacobsburg, Ohio, before playing at West Virginia. He credits his foot quickness to “quite a genre of sports” – football, basketball, soccer and swimming. Now he can add San Francisco hill climbing to his portfolio.
He turns 29 Saturday when the 49ers host the Denver Broncos in a preseason opener, likely with him and other starters safely stashed on the sideline.
You may recall he’s worked in San Francisco before: He filmed a John Deere commercial there last summer with him driving quarterback Brock Purdy in a tractor.
McKivitz’s better-paying gig is at right tackle, and he’s due a massive pay raise from his currently scheduled $3.2 million salary for 2025. He changed agents this offseason to Kyle Strongin, who negotiated a 49ers-record contract (five years, $265 million) for Purdy in May.
The market for right tackles is on the move with recent deals made for the Packers’ Zach Tom (four years, $88 million) and the Falcons’ Kaleb McGary (two years, $30 million).
Two years ago, Mike McGlinchey left the 49ers for a five-year, $87.5 million deal with the Broncos, thus freeing up the right tackle spot for McKivitz, who’s started every game since then.
McKivitz entered camp without a hint of a holdout, and coach Kyle Shanahan alluded to that when reporters quizzed him weeks ago about wide receiver Jauan Jennings’ public demand for an extension or a trade. “It’s very similar situations,” Shanahan said, “that I think the way they feel about us is the same way we feel about them.”
The 49ers aren’t exactly deep at tackle behind McKivitz and All-Pro Trent Williams. Austen Pleasants is McKivitz’s current backup, Spencer Burford is Williams’, and Andre Dillard remains on the Physically Unable to Perform list.
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McKivitz was a 2020 fifth-round draft pick. He was cut after the 2021 training camp but returned on the practice squad and has become a durable starter. A common target for critics, he allowed just two sacks last season, and he’s intent on reducing pressures on Purdy this season via his improved positioning and handwork in pass protection.
“To be one of the great players in the league, to follow Trent and emulate that, it’s all his hands,” McKivitz said. “Obviously he’s a genetically gifted freak, that is Trent Williams, the Silverback. But there’s the little things he does in pass-pro with his hands, his feet and his body position.”
That led McKivitz to take up another sport this offseason: boxing. Still, the streets of San Francisco will be the training sessions he remembers most.
“I did what I needed to do this offseason to prepare for this year,” McKivitz said. “I’m seeing some of that work come to fruition right now and I’m building off that.”