4 areas Brown can help the 49ers right away based on plays the offense ran last year

Earlier today, we looked at wide receiver the San Francisco 49ers could potentially draft in each of the first four rounds. One name that we haven’t talked about is Oklahoma’s wide receiver Marquise Brown. The speedy wide out had surgery January 8 after he suffered a Lisfranc injury. Brown is expected to be ready for the teams rookie minicamp after the draft, though there’s no need to rush him back.

I watched Jimmy Garoppolo’s starts in 2018 to get a feel for what the issues Kyle Shanahan saw at receiver. After seeing the issues, it felt like Brown would be Shanahan’s crush, despite being a shade under 5’10” and 170 pounds. Here are four plays/routes by both Brown and the 49ers.

Home run ability

One thing Shanahan loves doing is taking shots down the field in that “shot zone”, which is from the 40-yard line to the 40-yard line. Usually some sort of play-action pass that is attempting to get a receiver 1-on-1 down the field. This is the type of play I’m referring to. Watch Dante Pettis to the top of the screen.

You can only scheme so much. Health matters, obviously. But the team can use a true, consistent, home run threat. I think the world of Pettis, but this isn’t his role. For Brown—with his speed—these were layups at Oklahoma.

When Brown has that much field to work with, that’s all she wrote. We didn’t get a chance to see Brown run the 40, but a sub 4.35 was universally expected.

When teams have to keep an extra defender deep because they fear your team speed, that’s when everything opens up underneath. That’s when Pettis and George Kittle will be able to make the most of their 1-on-1 matchups. Speed kills.

What’s taking so long to get open?

One of the areas I noticed the 49ers wide receivers struggled with was beating press coverage. There were several plays throughout these games where not one, but two receivers weren’t able to shake free from press coverage. Garoppolo was forced to hold the ball in turn and either take a sack or flee the pocket. Here’s an example:

The 49ers receivers run to contact. That’s a problem.

Your instant reaction is that at Brown’s size there’s no way he’ll be able beat press at the next level. One area that he was very good at was avoiding contact. Whether that’s running through a defense that was in zone coverage, or at the line of scrimmage against press coverage. Here’s what most of the reps looked like when a player challenged Brown at the line:

He turned defensive backs around routinely. Teams would start out by pressing him, see that they didn’t stand a chance, then play off the rest of the game. So they tried, but they went to plan B quickly.

Brown can get open in a hurry. Both inside and out. You have to imagine Shanahan will gravitate towards that.

Winning in the red zone

There are a lot of flawed arguments in regards to receivers out there. One is that you need to be over 6” to be successful not only down the field, but in the red zone. This goes back to contact. Give me the guy that has unreal agility and quickness, as opposed to betting on a contested catch. Shouldn’t you want the guy that creates separation?

In tight quarters, things were a struggle on the perimeter for receivers that weren’t named Pettis.

That’s Kendrick Bourne, who was bailed out there with a holding call. He was already off balance. Those are the routes where Shanahan draws up a play, and the receiver doesn’t come through.

Oklahoma would throw Brown a screen and he would outrun or make a pair of defenders miss for a big gain. His ability to start and stop is impressive. That helps him get open in those tight quarters and create separation. The Sooners would even throw fade routes to Brown on occassion. Just because he could beat defenders to the spot with his speed. There is more than one way to win the red zone. That’s what the 49ers need.

Matchup nightmare

One thing that I love about Shanahan is that he will move players all over the place. The goal of this is to not only get the ball into the hands of your playmakers, but doing that so they can create after the catch. I saw Shanahan motion Trent Taylor into the backfield. Taylor couldn’t separate on the play, though. It was this exact play. Brown is the running back below:

You know you are going to get man coverage. This is simply a race to the sideline. Brown is going to win that every time. He also had a handful of extreme examples during the year where he broke a couple tackles and took off for 50+ yards. When the ball is in Brown’s hands, he’s electric.

Here’s an example of Taylor. He just doesn’t have the “juice” to pull away from defenders.

These are the routes Brown made a living on. Short and intermediate crossers. This first play was 3rd & 11. This gives you an idea of the type of acceleration Brown has.

Then there are the intermediate crossers, which he can be even more deadly on.

This matchup nightmare after the catch is the type of player offensive coordinators covet. A big play guy.

Areas of concern

So the size concerns are the obvious elephant in the room with Brown, who weighed in at 169 pounds at his Pro Day. Brown is a small receiver, but I do wonder how much Brown’s surgery on January factored into his weight. I would bet good money that Brown would have been closer to 180 than 170 if he was healthy and able to train all offseason.

Down the field, nothing about Brown concerns me. He is not only one of the best deep threats in the draft, but he will shield defenders off—causing several pass interferences—and judges the flight of the ball very well. I would be worried about him holding on through contact in those condensed areas of the field. You’d see a couple times throughout his last year with the Sooners where defenders would jar the ball loose when Brown was going to secure the catch. Also, you have a small strike zone with Brown. If Kyler Murray were to be off on an out route just a little, Brown couldn’t get to it. Those are the two main drawbacks with Brown.

The why

The fear of Brown getting hurt at his size is fair, even if he does put on 10 pounds or so. One thing that I did notice is he does a great job of getting down—ala Marvin Harrison—before a big hit was coming over the middle. Will he be able to do that consistently at the next level is the question many have. Avoiding contact in a contact sport isn’t sustainable.

Height doesn’t help you get open. Speed, agility, and nuance do. Brown has plenty of the first two. Add in Brown’s ability down the field and with the ball in his hands, it’s easy to see why Shanahan would want “Hollywood” in his offense. The question now becomes are you willing to overlook some flaws like play strength and catch radius. With Brown’s ability to make the big play, while opening up things for other receivers, it’s tough to not want him in San Francisco.