How coach Kyle Shanahan has the 49ers offense clicking despite lacking elite talent
The upstart defense has garnered most of the headlines surrounding the 49ers’ 5-0 start.
It’s indisputably been one of the best in the NFL so far, highlighted by Sunday’s road win over the Los Angeles Rams in which the defending NFC champions managed just 157 yards, the fewest since highly touted offensive guru Sean McVay became coach in 2017.
The sudden rise isn’t all that surprising considering the talent San Francisco has on that side of the ball. There are five former first-round draft picks along the defensive line (Nick Bosa, DeForest Buckner, Dee Ford, Arik Armstead and Solomon Thomas), one of the league’s highest paid linebackers in the middle (Kwon Alexander), a future Hall of Famer at cornerback (Richard Sherman) and first- and second-round draftees at safety (Jimmie Ward and Jaquiski Tartt).
But the opposite is true for the offense, particularly lately, though it’s remained one of the most productive in the NFL.
The 49ers enter Sunday’s game in Washington ranked fourth in yardage (408 per game), third in scoring (29.4 points), 10th in yards per play (5.9) and 10th in third-down conversion rate (45.5 percent).
They’ve done it with an unproven receiving corps. Two first-year tackles (a sixth-round round pick, Justin Skule, and another who spent the offseason playing in a defunct league, Daniel Brunskill) are replacing injured stalwarts Joe Staley and Mike McGlinchey.
“They’re diverse. They play great formational football,” Redskins interim coach Bill Callahan said in a conference call. “They give you a lot of problems from a formation standpoint and they’ll always come up with two or three formations that you haven’t seen but you got to get ready for, and adjust to. I think it’s a real credit to their offensive staff. They’ve been pretty diverse and multiple in terms of how they’re going to attack you.”
The team’s two leading rushers (Matt Breida and Raheem Mostert) are former undrafted free agents and another (Jeff Wilson Jr.) leads the team with four touchdowns. Oh, and quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is just over a year removed from a career-altering knee injury.
The 49ers have prided themselves on complementary football. But it’s an odd marriage. In essence, one side is a ragtag group of no-names (sans Garoppolo) while the other is a collection of premium players.
It’s proven to be a successful formula that might not have been possible during Shanahan’s first two seasons. In Year 3, the foundation of the offense is far stronger. Players have a firm grasp of their responsibilities and game plans can be more detailed and expansive.
“I think that’s a huge part of it,” tight end George Kittle said. “Coach Shanahan’s offense is dense and there’s a lot to it. If you don’t know what your role is and why you’re doing it on every single play, you might mess that up. Once you figure it out, it all clicks together. It’s a big puzzle. Once all the pieces are working together, then it looks pretty beautiful.”
Kittle has blossomed into one of the best players at his position despite entering the league as a fifth-round draft pick known for his blocking at Iowa far more than his receiving. His rise is emblematic of the offense, a credit to Shanahan and his staff.
Consider: Garoppolo is among the fastest quarterbacks in throwing the ball after the snap – 2.47 seconds on average, according NFL Next Gen Stats. And that’s while the 49ers are among the league leaders in using play action, roughly a third of their passing attempts.
Play-action takes longer to develop than typical pass plays, which means many of Garoppolo’s quick passes are a result of Shanahan and his staff identifying where to strike the defense – and how to do it quickly and efficiently.
“A lot of that’s on the run game,” Kittle said as the 49ers enter Week 7 as the NFL’s second-most prolific rushing team. “We’re able to run the ball, so then it opens up all those holes in the passing game for our play action stuff.”
Added Shanahan: “That’s something we always try to do. We don’t want to hold onto the ball long and the times that you do hold onto the ball long, you really hope the defense is playing run, because if not, it’s very hard to ask the O-Line to block those guys and for the receivers to get open that fast. That’s the philosophy we’ve always done or you at least try to do and I think we’ve done a better job of doing it this year.”
Garoppolo has hardly been a productive fantasy quarterback. But he’s done well working opposite San Francisco’s defense that’s carried the water through five games. The 49ers average 29.4 passing attempts per game, the third fewest in the league. Garoppolo’s 233 yards per game ranks 19th because San Francisco is running the ball a league-high 39 times each week.
He’s been efficient. His 8.0 yards per attempt ranks 10th while his 7.4 adjusted net yards (accounting for sacks) ranks fifth. Garoppolo credited the scheme and game planning for some of that success.
“You try to have a picture pre-snap, but all good defenses in the NFL are going to disguise and rotate late,” he said. “You just have to play the play, but our coaches do a great job at not only giving us good plays, but explaining it to the point where you know what you’re looking for, you know what the read is and you can play fast that way.”
Perhaps what reflects best on the coaching staff is the ability to plug in any player and still get production. An emphasis on Sunday was to make sure Skule and Brunskill – the team’s fourth and fifth tackles entering training camp – wouldn’t be put in positions to fail against the Rams’ talented defensive front. That gave Brunskill a much-needed confidence boost ahead of his first career start.
He regularly had help against the pass rush in the form of chip blocks from tight ends and running backs, which led to allowing just one pressure on 36 pass-blocking snaps, according to Pro Football Focus.
“(Shanahan) just does a great job off putting you in good plays to where you’re not out there having the hardest one-on-one block in the world,” Brunskill said. “You’re out there having somewhat easier blocks to go against so it’s harder for you to go get beat. He’s just such a smart coach.”
This story was originally published October 17, 2019 at 5:30 AM.
