RG Mike Person
It was one of the most audacious play calls in recent memory, and it showed just how much faith 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan justifiably has in his highly multiple and effective running game. With 6:31 left in the first quarter of the NFC Championship game against the Packers, the score 0-0, and the ball at the Green Bay 36-yard line, San Francisco had a third-and-8 to deal with. Shanahan called a trap play, requiring right guard Mike Person to pull inside left tackle Joe Staley and take out linebacker Kyler Fackrell. Fackrell helped by falling down, but Person still sealed the edge, and running back Raheem Mostert was off on his first touchdown journey of the day — his first of four in San Francisco’s 37-20 win.
Mobile enough to pull on traps and other run plays that require lateral movement and precision, and strong enough to hit a wham or combo block inside, Person is one of the primary force multipliers in a running game so complex, it has taken the guys on that line a little while to get on the same page. Which is no problem at this point. And in pass protection, Person has allowed just one quarterback sack and 34 total pressures in 541 pass-blocking snaps this season.
“He’s huge,” Staley said of Person’s effect on the line. “Mike’s been unbelievable as far as the details. Getting the intricacies of the offense as far as where to go, where your leverage is, where your help is, when you have to single-block. We put a lot on our guards as far as that goes, and Mike’s knowledge of the game and understanding of the system has been huge for us.”
Chiefs: Daniel Sorensen | Sammy Watkins | Charvarius Ward
49ers: Deebo Samuel | Fred Warner | Mike Person
Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar previously covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”