Have Defenses Caught Up to 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan's Offensive Scheme?

The 49ers will face the Dolphins this Sunday in a matchup of two of the NFL's most disappointing offenses.

Dec 1, 2024; Orchard Park, New York, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan congratulates Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott after the game at Highmark Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images / Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images

The 49ers will face the Dolphins this Sunday in a matchup of two of the NFL's most disappointing offenses.

The 49ers have scored just 22.4 points per game this season, down 6.5 points per game from 2023. And the Dolphins have scored a mere 19.7 points per game this season, down 9.5 points per game since last season.

The issue? Christian McCaffrey and Tyreek Hill aren't dominant players anymore -- that's a big part of it. But also their offensive schemes aren't so cutting -edge anymore. Defenses seem to have caught up to Kyle Shanahan and Mike McDaniel, who worked together for more than 10 years. Now they'll coach against each other on Sunday.

This week, Shanahan was asked about reinventing himself. Here's what he said, courtesy of the 49ers' p.r. department.

Q: A popular talking point on the radio is that you need to reinvent yourself. Your offense is all over the league and everyone's caught up to it and now you need to evolve or whatever. I assume some of that already happens every year. Do you agree with part of that or is that just as a coach you're always doing that?

SHANAHAN: “That's what you try to do every single week. That's what you try to always do. But it's kind of like the other question when talking about schemes, you don't just say, ‘Hey, today I'm going to try to run the wishbone offense and stuff.’ It's what are the players that you have, what do you believe in and what gives those guys the best chance to succeed? For a little bit here, we almost went with the running quarterback, possibly with [Dallas Cowboys QB] Trey [Lance]. You saw a different offense when he got out there. You see different things. You’ve got to adjust your players. I know what I want to do. I think we've got the players here to do that stuff. But reinventing yourself as you ask, I did that having a mustache this offseason for a little bit. That's how I would look at that. And I'm totally joking, but it's when it comes to football, football's, that's why I think coaches get a little too much credit too when a really good scheme is putting the players that you have in the best chance they have to max out and do their best. That's what we're gonna always try to do. The scheme will change with that.”

Q: Along those lines, I think there’s 18 teams in the league that run some variation of what you do. Are you flattered by that or are you frustrated by that?

SHANAHAN: “It just is what it is. When they say they do what we do it, the team's motion a lot more now, they believe in play action a lot more. I think that comes from defensive coordinators and defensive coaches pushing that on offensive guys. I think the more young guys that come in the league that's what they see a little bit more of. That's kind of how it goes. When I got in the league, you see certain things and I ran a certain offense at Houston when I was there, went to Washington, tried to do a real similar offense and it was totally different personnel and I realized I couldn't run that same thing and I had to adjust and each year was different. Then we got [Washington Commanders former QB] Robert [Griffin III] in there, which was a quarterback who had a running element, then I had to do stuff that I'd never done before. Not because you're just reinventing yourself or trying to change the league because you're trying to figure out what can help the guys that you have be successful. And that can change all the time depending on the player's skillset. But, I'd say as a coach that if you want to make it in this league and you want to have some success in this league you better be able to adjust to anything or you're only going to be successful when you have the perfect situations.”

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