Shanahan is regarded as one of the best play-callers in the NFL because he doesn’t try to fit a square peg into a round hole. He knows the advantage lies when McCaffrey and Kittle are matched up against Ernest Jones. That’s where the scheme, specifically all of the pre-snap motion, can help create mismatches that lead to a safety guarding Jennings or Pearsall. The Seahawks have two studs at cornerback. Great. Good for you. Let them line up against MVS or Kyle Juszczyk while the action happens inside the numbers.
That’s right, the game plan is the old “Throw it to your best players when they’re not being guarded by the other team’s best players.” Let’s see if it works.
For a team that missed the majority of its core offensive players in 2024, the San Francisco 49ers were surprisingly efficient last season. However, efficiency doesn’t lead to points when you don’t execute.
Brock Purdy, Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, and Trent Williams were on the field together for a total of 49 plays last year. Each of those came in Week 10 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In those plays, the offense averaged 7.3 yards per play with a 57.1 percent success rate. We can unfairly extrapolate that small sample size and show that those numbers would have led the league.
If McCaffrey’s calf holds up, we’ll see those four on the field in a couple of days. Each player is critical if the 49ers want to reach their peak, but the offense struggled mightily in 2024 without their future Hall of Fame left tackle.
The 49ers get their best player back
At some point, Trent Williams will stop playing like an All-Pro. The 37-year-old showed no signs of regression when he was on the field a year ago. Next Gen Stats tracks the average time to pressure allowed. Williams led the league at 3.78 seconds last season. If you focus on Williams during the game, he often looks bored and unchallenged.
Sports Info Solutions tracks the percentage of “blown blocks” a player has. Williams’ 1.5 blown block percentage was lower than 2024 All-Pros Tristan Wirfs (1.7) and Penei Sewell (2.8). We didn’t see him during the preseason, but the 49ers getting the best player at his position back seems to be flying under the radar.
It’s Year 5 in a 49ers uniform for Williams. His 59.6 percent of snaps in 2024 was the lowest yet. Perhaps that’s why. Still, when he’s on the field, Kyle Shanahan can run the ball with the utmost confidence behind No. 71. The Niners averaged a full yard more per carry on designed runs to the left (5.2) with Williams.
The 49ers get their best player back. That peace of mind should allow their wild child of a quarterback to harness some of his aggression.
Be you, Brock
Brock Purdy has been the same quarterback since he’s been at Perry High School in Gilbert, Arizona, about 25 minutes from me. He’s a playmaker. He’s going to fight for his life on every dropback and fight for every available yard. That’s who he is. That didn’t change at Iowa State, either.
Purdy reeled some of the wildness in during the Niners’ epic 2023 season when the conditions around him were flawless. However, the ugly side of the “I’m going to do it all on this play” reared its ugly head at times last year.
Purdy threw into tight windows on a career-high 17.8 percent of his passes last year. Some of this was out of necessity, given the lack of wide receiver talent from years past. Brock also averaged a career-high 8.7 air yards per attempt.
There’s a strange narrative about Purdy being a checkdown merchant. He’s anything but. He’s as much of a gunslinger as anybody in the league. How can one be a “Checkdown Charlie” when they have the second-lowest rate of passes behind the line of scrimmage? There are also false narratives about Purdy, like him benefiting more than most from yards after the catch.
Not only did Purdy have the lowest rate of passes behind the line of scrimmage last year of the Shanahan era, but he also had the fourth-lowest percentage of his passing yards come after the catch. He’s a chucker.
There’s a fine line that Purdy is still trying to find between operating within Shanahan’s system and not trying to do too much — something he told Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer he was a victim of last year:
I would say I was frustrated about losing the Super Bowl, and it was like, Alright, we got to get back. That’s all I saw, was getting back. And because some of those guys are out, I have to go make plays to get us back. And for me, I was losing sight of, Bro, keep every play as simple as possible, and don’t complicate it. And you will get back if you do your job the right way, every single drive for four quarters, and you win the game. At times, I lost sight of that. I was trying to do too much.
Purdy admitted that he wasn’t going through his progressions, setting his feet, or always playing on time. Two of his best traits are timing and understanding where all of the receivers are, which is why it’s easy to believe the 25-year-old will grow up, in a sense, heading into Year 4.
Purdy doesn’t need to wear a cape on every dropback. The 49ers know what he’s capable of, which is why they paid him handsomely. You can have the gunslinger mentality and play within the system. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.
Ultimately, Brock needs to be himself. His mobility, willingness to hunt the big play, and overall variance are what have elevated the 49ers’ offense. Mechanics and hero ball are simple fixes. Syncing his feet with the play should be second nature. But you can’t teach a quarterback to consistently throw it to the second and third levels, or scramble for a first down when opportunity presents itself.
Be you, Brock. He’ll need to against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 1.
Magic Mike’s in-season turnaround
First-year head coach Mike MacDonald put his fingerprints on the roster midway through the season, and the defense reaped the rewards. The Seahawks moved on from linebackers Tyrel Dodson and Jerome Baker in favor of Ernest Jones and Tyrice Knight. Seattle got meaner, more athletic, and aggressive.
The Seahawks finished the season 10th in schedule-adjusted efficiency by season’s end. From Week 10 on, Seattle finished fifth in EPA per play and seventh in success rate. MacDonald had his defense hovering around the top three before a couple of late-season collapses.
Now, he adds Demarcus Lawrence to the fold, gets a healthy Byron Murphy in Year 2, and a pair of cornerbacks in Riq Woolen and Devon Witherspoon that could give the Niners wideouts fits. Given the state of the 49ers’ wide receiver room, an argument could be made that Seattle’s defense is the best unit in this game.
But how do they match up against Kyle Shanahan and company as a whole?
The bigger the better
Moving Murphy was a chore as a rookie. The duo of Murphy and Jarran Reed was one of the primary reasons the Seahawks finished sixth in rushing EPA allowed down the stretch. Throw in Leonard Williams, and that’s a lot of beef to block.
That’s not good news for an offensive line that allowed McCaffrey to be contacted behind the line of scrimmage on 58 percent of his carries last season. To CMC’s credit, he recorded the fifth-highest missed tackle rate, but you’d rather see him breaking ankles and bouncing off tackles at the second level, not two yards behind the scrimmage.
Regardless of how Ben Bartch plays at left guard, Aaron Banks will be an addition by subtraction. He was dreadful last year. Remember Trent’s blown block percentage of 1.5? Banks’s was more than double that number at 3.3 percent. He was slow off the ball, often let defenders cross his face, and was even worse in pass protection.
Bartch is about 30 pounds lighter, and it showed in brief action last year. In 64 snaps, Bartch missed as many blocks as the person reading this. Will he remain perfect over an entire season? Of course not. But in 15 preseason snaps, Bartch looked like the same player he was late last season.
The Seahawks’ lack of a true speed threat plays into the 49ers’ hands. Generally, the bigger the better for the Niners’ offensive line. It’s unclear what planet Dominick Puni is from, but if you watch his snaps last year against Seattle, Murphy, specifically, you’d come away thinking No. 77 was the first-rounder.
Colton McKivitz and Jake Brendel combined for two missed blocks in 234 snaps against Seattle last season. Sheer power and brute strength are not how you get over on the Niners’ offensive line, which bodes well for McCaffrey and Purdy.
I’m not sure if we can have the same confidence when it comes to the players on the perimeter.
Can scheme outweigh talent?
Purdy’s maturation was on full display from the first matchup against the Seahawks to the second. His numbers in Week 6 are inflated, thanks to a 76-yard scamper from Deebo Samuel, but Purdy was wildly efficient. MacDonald lived in zone that game, and Brock made him pay. Every completion (18) and yard (255) Purdy threw for came against zone. He carved Seattle up, only throwing four incompletions against zone coverage on a short week. However, he was 0-6 against man coverage.
Fast forward a month, and the Seahawks doubled their man coverage usage. Why wouldn’t you? Jauan Jennings, Deebo Samuel, and a green Ricky Pearsall were the wideouts. Purdy went 9-for-12 for 68 yards and a touchdown against man coverage that afternoon. The lack of yardage speaks to the receivers more than it does the quarterback. Purdy came through when it mattered most. Brock converted a first down on all five of his dropbacks on third down against man coverage. He did his job then, and will likely be faced with the same task in Week 1.
Pearsall was the talk of the town in August. Jennings will likely continue to be the recipient of third-down targets. However, part of the reason San Francisco saw more man coverage in the second game was due to their Hall of Fame tight end missing in action. Kittle caught five of his six targets for 58 yards and two touchdowns in the first matchup. I’m going to go out on a limb and say his numbers will be closer to those than being shut out this Sunday.
That does not mean the 49ers are going to march up and down the field against a Seahawks secondary that figures to be stingy under MacDonald.
Pearsall will likely draw the matchup of Devon Witherspoon, no matter where he lines up. Witherspoon is comfortable playing outside or in the slot. He’s a baller and can match Pearsall’s acceleration, quickness, and long speed. Last year, Witherspoon was targeted 51 times and only allowed more than 35 yards receiving twice all season.
His counterpart, Tariq Woolen, has a strong case for being one of the most under-appreciated cornerbacks in the game. He’s 6’4 and will presumably match up against Jennings or Marquez Valdes-Scantling, if he sees the field. Woolen’s 4.26 speed allows him to sit on routes, while his frame puts him in a position to make a play on the ball every time. Now, Woolen can be had on double moves or big plays. He surrendered six touchdowns last season. Jennings on a double move, ala against the Rams last year, might be just what the doctor ordered.
The Seahawks have the edge against the Niners’ wideouts, which is why Purdy should spam targets to Kittle and McCaffrey endlessly. That’s right, you’re allowed to throw it to the running back! That was not the case for the 49ers last year.
McCaffrey’s rushing ability will be a breath of fresh air. He’s not just a guy who flourishes on the outside, either. Last year, McCaffrey averaged seven yards per carry running between the tackles. From Weeks 10-13, McCaffrey was the only player in the NFL with at least 200 rushing yards and 140 receiving yards. He’s a cheat code out of the backfield that Seattle didn’t have an answer for. And we have proof that the Seahawks haven’t had an answer for No. 85 whenever he plays them.
Shanahan is regarded as one of the best play-callers in the NFL because he doesn’t try to fit a square peg into a round hole. He knows the advantage lies when McCaffrey and Kittle are matched up against Ernest Jones. That’s where the scheme, specifically all of the pre-snap motion, can help create mismatches that lead to a safety guarding Jennings or Pearsall. The Seahawks have two studs at cornerback. Great. Good for you. Let them line up against MVS or Kyle Juszczyk while the action happens inside the numbers.
That’s right, the game plan is the old “Throw it to your best players when they’re not being guarded by the other team’s best players.” Let’s see if it works.
About the Author: Insidethe49
