Tag: Kyle Shanahan

Kyle Shanahan ranked 4th-best NFL head coach by TD Wire

The 49ers have top-5 players at several positions. They’ve also got a top-5 head coach according to TD Wire.

The 49ers are loaded between the lines. Their roster features top-five NFL players at a slew of positions with a couple players trending that direction if they’re not already there. Another key component of their success though is having a top-five head coach, and that’s where Kyle Shanahan landed in the Touchdown Wire head coach rankings. Only Mike Tomlin, Sean McVay and Andy Reid are ahead of him.

While the discourse around Shanahan has revolved around his team’s inability to get over the hump, he gets a ton of credit for continually coaching a team that is in the mix. Via Jarrett Bailey at TD Wire:

The 49ers led the NFL in offensive EPA per play, success rate, EPA per dropback, EPA per rush, dropback success rate, and rushing success rate in 2023- that’s so incredibly difficult to do, but with Shanahan and their cast of stars, they made it look simple. No one will be surprised if they are one of the final four teams come January, nor will anyone be shocked if they are back in the Super Bowl. Let’s see if they can finally win one.

Shanahan’s value as a coach is not super easy to replace, and it’s why the 49ers are content with keeping him despite a handful of tough end-of-season losses. He’s a game-changing offensive coach which is a key component of success in the modern NFL.

He’s certainly not perfect. There are time management issues at times and questionable player usage, but overall the 49ers are a better team because Shanahan is at the helm.

Eventually he’s going to have to get over the hump and win a title if he’s going to enter the pantheon of all-time great coaches. For now though he’s top-five in the NFL and there’s not much that’s going to change that any time soon.

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San Francisco 49ers’ best draft sleeper pick: Jacob Cowing, WR, Arizona

The 49ers got themselves a spectacular receiver in Arizona’s Jacob Cowing.

Assuming that the 49ers keep both Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk this season, the addition of first-round receiver Ricky Pearsall gives Kyle Shanahan a different kind of target for which to scheme in that Pearsall is one of those guys who knows how to get open. But what about the deep ball? Aiyuk led the team last season with 15 catches on passes of 20 or more air yards, and George Kittle was second with seven. That’s worked just fine to date, but it also sets the table for Arizona’s Jacob Cowing, who the team took with the 135th overall pick in the fourth round.

In 2023, the 5′ 8⅜”, 163-pound Cowing had six receptions on passes of 20 or more air yards on a team where the deep ball wasn’t a feature. His tape shows a lot of speed potential, and in today’s NFL, teams are less concerned with smaller receivers, given the use of motion and multiple deployments to keep them open, and away from bigger, more aggressive defenders.

“Very similar to what we got with [WR] Ricky [Pearsall] in that there’s not a route that he can’t run,” Shanahan said of Cowing. “He starts outside the numbers and he’s got the speed to get on top of people and threaten with a go. He’s got the quickness. Inside he’d be a big problem with just how shifty he is. He can run screens and things like that. Very good punt returner. For his lack of size, he makes up with mentality. His mindset, when he does cut, he’s always accelerating out of a cut. He’s trying to violently go through people and when you’re smaller, you hope they’re faster and quicker, which he is, and anything that you wanna knock on a smaller guy he makes up for in his mindset.”

Greg Cosell and I are both fans, and we discussed Cowing’s potential in Shanahan’s offense in “The Xs and Os.” 

49ers QB Brock Purdy already seeing benefit of full offseason

Brock Purdy had a full offseason to get better, and his improvement is already evident according to head coach Kyle Shanahan.

Brock Purdy’s impressive 2023 campaign made it easy to forget about the catastrophic elbow injury he suffered in the previous season’s NFC championship game. That injury, a torn UCL in his throwing elbow, required offseason surgery and rehab that took him all the way up to the start of training camp. His first full NFL offseason was ostensibly spent in rehab instead of working on getting better as a quarterback.

This offseason was a different story for Purdy, who is already reaping the benefits sown by the opportunity to work on football in the months between the Super Bowl and the offseason program. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said the growth in Purdy is already apparent.

“He is definitely ahead of where he was last year this time, but I mean it was just real cool being able to go through a whole year of cutups just like we did last year and just starting in Phase 1,” Shanahan told reporters after Tuesday’s practice. “The command he had of going out there with the drills and everything and really trying to apply the stuff we had just been watching in the meeting rooms, that really happened all off our 2023 tape. Last year he had to do it and then it would just be frustrating for him because he couldn’t really go work on it. He had to just visualize and think about it and had to wait for that opportunity in training camp. This year right away it’s been awesome for him to lead us through the whole offseason, just drill wise and everything. It’s he’s been great to have for a first full offseason.”

It’s unlikely we see visible marked improvements in Purdy’s game this season given how efficient he was last year. However, there are definitely areas he can get better and having a better command of the offense will help him play more mistake-free, consistent football.

The margin between wins and losses for the 49ers is extremely thin, so any upgrade from Purdy this season could be the difference in turning a couple losses into wins. If Purdy’s improvement translates into success in the regular season it may be enough to get the 49ers over the Super Bowl hangover and back into the NFL’s championship game.

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Graph shows how 49ers, Kyle Shanahan have broken offensive football

Kyle Shanahan has solved modern offensive football. This graph shows how:

The 49ers offense shouldn’t be what it is. Or at least it shouldn’t put up the numbers it does given what the offense appears to be on paper.

San Francisco at its core is a run-first football team. Of the 1,024 snaps they played last year on offense (sixth-fewest in the NFL), 499 of them (48.8 percent) were rush attempts. Their 491 pass attempts were the fewest in the NFL.

That should mean the 49ers are one of the NFL’s lowest-production passing offenses. They simply don’t throw it as often, ergo they should have fewer yards.

Alas, that’s not how things shake out because head coach Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers’ personnel have cracked the present offensive code that allows them to maintain one of the NFL’s most efficient passing attacks while sticking to their core, run-first principles.

Ryan Heath, a writer at Fantasy Points, posted a graph on Twitter that perfectly illustrates how San Francisco has become a massive outlier in modern football:

There’s a pretty steady correlation between a team’s number of catchable throws per game and the number of yards they rack up. The one major exception is the 49ers. They managed to rank fourth in the NFL in passing yards despite landing at 32nd in attempts and among the bottom five in catchable targets.

Part of this is because of what the 49ers’ pass catchers are capable of after the catch. They rack up extra passing yards on short throws where most teams might get five or six yards from a certain play, while San Francisco is getting 20-plus yards out of the same play.

The reason this may be sustainable even if the yards-after-catch numbers dip is because of quarterback Brock Purdy’s efficiency down the field. He’s capable of stretching defenses vertically just enough that the 49ers can still take shots and rip off chunk plays in the passing game even if the YAC isn’t there.

Still, it all comes back to their rushing attack. Shanahan “establishes the run” in such a way that defenses have to commit to it which opens up the throwing lanes that lead to easy completions and YAC opportunities.

While most teams have started going toward a pass-heavy offense to ensure maximum efficiency, the 49ers have gone the other way while maintaining their passing efficiency. It’s something other teams in the league are bound to start doing more of as defenses begin adjusting, and that’s why Shanahan’s value as an offensive coach is so high. Staying ahead of that curve is going to be imperative. For now though it appears the 49ers have solved modern offensive football. Whether they can solve the next iteration of it will determine how long their window with Shanahan and Purdy stays open.

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Saints plan joint practices with 49ers before preseason game

The New Orleans Saints have planned to share the field for joint practices with the San Francisco 49ers before an upcoming preseason game:

We still don’t know what the New Orleans Saints’ regular season schedule will look like, but their plans for the preseason are beginning to take shape. Nola.com’s Jeff Duncan reports that the Saints are planning to share the field for joint practices with the San Francisco 49ers before an upcoming preseason game.

It makes a lot of sense. The Saints will be moving their 2024 training camp to California this year amid large-scale renovations to the team’s Metairie practice facility, so they won’t have to travel far from their operations at UC-Irvine’s campus. Duncan’s report says the Saints and 49ers will play a preseason game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. On top of the logistics involved, the Saints will have a great opportunity to see how they compare to a legitimate Super Bowl contender.

This will be their second exhibition game of the summer after kicking off the preseason with the Arizona Cardinals in Glendale’s State Farm Stadium.

Joint practices are sometimes seen as a better evaluation opportunity than the preseason games themselves; it’s an environment where coaches can control the matchups and pace of play to try out specific situations. The Saints have held joint practices with teams like the Los Angeles Chargers, Green Bay Packers, and Houston Texans in recent years, as well as the New England Patriots and Jacksonville Jaguars. So while this will be their first time working with Kyle Shanahan’s staff in San Francisco, it’s sure to be a great learning opportunity after they poached offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak from the 49ers.

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Dan Hurley credits Kyle Shanahan as inspiration for UConn’s championship offense

The back-to-back national champion basketball coach mentioned Kyle Shanahan as an inspiration behind his offense with the UConn Huskies.

Over the last two seasons, college basketball has been run by one team, the University of Connecticut Huskies. With another recent win over the Purdue Boilermakers to cap March Madness, UConn became the first team to win back-to-back national championships in basketball since the Florida Gators won a pair of titles in 2006 and 2007.

Coming off the success of another national title, UConn head coach Dan Hurley mentioned the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers in a recent interview. In an appearance on Tommy Alter and J.J. Reddick’s podcast “The Old Man and the Three,” Hurley gave credit to Kyle Shanahan for inspiring his different offenses with the Huskies.

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Via The Old Man and the Three:

I think the inspiration the last two years, especially this year is like — watching college football now or [Kyle] Shanahan from the NFL, they’ll have like — obviously the pace and the tempo of their cuts and their actions.

But like how they’ll have trips out of the shotgun, with two in the backfield, and out of that formation, there’s like seven or eight different things they do out of — There’s a sweep, a play action, you know, a deep post right, all these different things.

So I think going into this year, me and Luke Murray, we got together, and we’re like, ‘you know, we want to have like, you know, 10 different formations…’

Via @RonStewart_ on Twitter:

Listen to the full podcast between Hurley and Reddick here.

This post originally appeared on Niners Wire! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! 

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NFL draft: Never rule out 49ers adding DL help

A draft analyst took the 49ers out of the running for one of the draft’s top edge rushers. We are going to go ahead and not do that based on everything we know about the 49ers.

Never underestimate the 49ers’ desire to bolster their defensive line. A handful of free agency moves that saw the club add a pair of defensive ends and a pair of defensive tackles might have pushed the defensive front down their perceived list of needs, but San Francisco’s front office isn’t above continuing to add there.

A recent report from draft analyst Tony Pauline indicated the 49ers would be out on Western Michigan pass rusher Marshawn Kneeland because the club signed Leonard Floyd and Yetur Gross-Matos in free agency.

We’re going to go ahead and rebut the argument (from Pauline or anyone else) that the 49ers can be crossed off the list of teams that might be interested in Kneeland in the second round (or possibly late in the first round) of this year’s draft, because the 49ers can never have enough pass rush help.

When the club was in pursuit of then-Bears pass rusher Khalil Mack, general manager John Lynch said pass rush was as important to a defense as the quarterback is to an offense. The team has continued prioritizing their pass rush throughout Lynch’s tenure with head coach Kyle Shanahan. They drafted Nick Bosa No. 2 overall in 2019. They traded for DE Dee Ford that same offseason. In 2022 they used a second-round pick on USC DE Drake Jackson. Last year they spent a fifth-round choice on Georgia DE Robert Beal. All the while they’ve added low-risk, high-reward free agents at those spots as well.

Floyd and Gross-Matos should help a 49ers pass rush that sorely lacked in production last year, but history tells us a couple of veteran free agent additions won’t stop San Francisco from adding more depth, particularly if they believe that player can be a starter over the long-term. A player like Kneeland (or pick your favorite DE in this year’s class) wouldn’t have much competition for snaps right away since Gross-Matos figures to play inside some of the time and neither Jackson nor Beal are proven commodities at the NFL level.

It’s entirely conceivable the 49ers view DE as one of their top needs for this year and in the future. They might even use a first-round pick there depending on how the board shakes out. Of course, there are other positions San Francisco could spend its first couple selection on, but the defensive line is always a spot they’ll look to improve and ruling them out of the sweepstakes for one of the draft’s top edge rushers isn’t something we’re willing to do.

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Will 49ers sign any more free agents?

Are the #49ers done making free agency additions? Sort of!

It sure looks like the 49ers might have their significant free agency additions all wrapped up. With less than a month until the draft it’s hard to find a spot on the 49ers roster where one of the top remaining free agents makes a ton of sense.

There are a handful of places where depth could be helped by a veteran presence. Defensive line is always a place teams need depth. So are cornerback and offensive line. For the 49ers specifically there were some questions about what they’d do at safety since they could use help there, but with Talanoa Hufanga on track to return during training camp from his torn ACL that need is diminished pretty significantly.

Some of this could change a little if the Lions wind up matching the offer sheet the 49ers agreed to with restricted free agent tight end Brock Wright. They could also decide veteran depth alongside Hufanga, Ji’Ayir Brown and George Odum is more valuable than a draft pick or third-year undrafted free agent Tayler Hawkins.

If Wright winds up back in Detroit the 49ers could, and probably should, bring in a veteran they trust to handle the backup TE duties. It’s notable that long-time 49er Ross Dwelley is still available.

San Francisco has also had meetings with veteran safeties, but made it clear a starting spot wasn’t guaranteed. Given where they’re salary cap-wise a rookie who can develop and play special teams might be more valuable long-term than a veteran who is more game-ready in 2024.

There will continue being tweaks and additions as the team enters its offseason program. There will also likely be some signings after the dust has settled on the draft and the 49ers can make their final adjustments to their 90-man offseason roster.

So, the 49ers aren’t necessarily done signing free agents, but they’re likely done making additions that are going to move the needle with any kind of significance. It’s all about the NFL draft and the start of their offseason program moving forward.

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Andy Reid offers advice to 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan

Andy Reid needed 21 seasons to finally win a Super Bowl. He offered some advice to #49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan:

Kyle Shanahan has run into the proverbial wall that stands between NFL head coaches and a Lombardi Trophy four times now in seven seasons as a head coach. Twice he’s fallen short in the Super Bowl. Twice he’s come up short in the NFC championship game. That kind of success without the ultimate prize is a familiar space for Chiefs head coach Andy Reid.

Reid, thanks to his run with quarterback Patrick Mahomes, is now synonymous with greatness among NFL head coaches. There’s a real chance he tracks down former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick as the most decorated head coach of all-time. That wasn’t always the case though.

Prior to Kansas City’s Super Bowl LIV win (over the 49ers, oddly enough), Reid was 20 years deep into his career as a head coach in the NFL. He’d been to just one Super Bowl and lost five NFC championship games between his tenures with the Eagles and Chiefs. Then he got his quarterback and the winning came fast and furious. Since 2019 Reid and the Chiefs have pulled in three Lombardi Trophies and the head coach has established himself as one of the league’s all-time greats.

Reid on Monday at the NFL owners meetings was asked about Shanahan after defeating him in a Super Bowl for the second time in February.

“Just keep doing what you’re doing and somewhere you pop over the hill there,” Reid said via ESPN’s Nick Wagoner. “I know he’s got a great young quarterback, and him with a great young quarterback is deadly.”

Shanahan has had one of the best rosters in the league since his first Super Bowl run as a head coach in the 2019 season, but the QB has always been a little bit of a question mark. Reid is the second Chiefs coach to prop up 49ers QB Brock Purdy as a great player following his performance in Super Bowl LVIII. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo also did it.

If Reid and Spagnuolo are correct and Shanahan does have his franchise QB in Purdy, then it may not be long until he gets over that hill Reid mentioned. Even if it is Reid and Mahomes standing on top of it.

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Vikings QB Kirk Cousins is open to a return to Washington

Times have indeed changed.

The Washington NFL organization is in a completely different place than it was six years ago when quarterback Kirk Cousins departed in free agency.

The team has had two nickname changes since Cousins last played in Washington. Cousins’ nemesis, former team president Bruce Allen, has been gone for five years. But no change is more significant than Dan Snyder selling the team.

Guess who is a free agent in less than two weeks?

And guess who needs a quarterback?

We’ve seen the different scenarios of people hypothesizing about Cousins returning to Washington. However, it never appeared to be based in reality.

Not so fast. According to Ben Standig of The Athletic, Cousins is open to returning to Washington.

Why would Cousins return to Washington? Yes, things have changed, but the Commanders also have plenty of money to pay Cousins. Also, Cousins is close to 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, who has strong relationships with new Washington GM Adam Peters and coach Dan Quinn. If the Commanders were indeed an option for Cousins, he’d likely hear good things from Shanahan.

Cousins wants to play for a winner, and he will have options. Washington’s window doesn’t seem to mirror Cousins’ next few seasons. But if the Commanders signed Cousins, then business is open for the No. 2 overall pick. Washington already has six of the top 103 picks in the 2024 NFL draft and, if it traded back, could land a massive haul of picks to rebuild the roster while contending as soon as next season.

The odds are still that the Commanders will select a quarterback at No. 2 overall. You are not often in the position to begin a new regime with the No. 2 overall pick in a draft with multiple top quarterback prospects. But what if Washington felt uncomfortable with this group of quarterbacks?

For the first time in seemingly forever, Washington has options — good options.