How Kyle Shanahan is Limiting the 49ers Offense

There are many issues that are plaguing the 49ers offense, but it is largely because of head coach and play caller Kyle Shanahan.

Oct 27, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan on the field before the game against the Dallas Cowboys at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images / Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images

Plenty of issues are plaguing the San Francisco 49ers on offense this season.

Injuries are the first issue, while player execution is another. However, the greatest issue of the 49ers offense this year has been head coach and play caller Kyle Shanahan. The creativity is lacking, the sequencing of plays is lacking, and he's grown predictable.

Shanahan is the main factor that is limiting the 49ers offense. He looks like a premier starting pitcher who's lost his 100-mile-an-hour fastball. He's lost it this year and is reeling for it with no idea how to correct it. The problem with Shanahan is that the issues he is facing with the 49ers offense are 100 percent correctable.

He just doesn't want to correct them. Why? Because he is extremely stubborn. For example, Christian McCaffrey has been getting run into the ground as if he wasn't just dealing with Achilles tendinitis in both legs this season. McCaffrey hasn't been efficient at all and it isn't all that surprising.

He probably isn't fully healthy and has to battle the mental aspect of knowing his Achilles could go at any moment. Whatever the case may be, it's creating hesitation from him and slowness. How he runs looks like how Draymond Green shoots three-pointers with a heavy backpack on.

McCaffrey isn't ready to be the every-down player that he was last season. It seems obvious that the 49ers should integrate Jordan Mason more. He was at or near the top entering Week 6 in rushing yards. He is not a player who should be restricted to the sideline and must be utilized more.

However, Shanahan refuses to do so. He is so stuck in his ways believing McCaffrey is one play away from returning to his former self. Meanwhile, Mason has looked incredible in the several carries he's been given since McCaffrey returned. It's mind-boggling that Shanahan doesn't view rotating Mason and McCaffrey has a phenomenal idea.

It's at least worth a try since nothing the 49ers are doing now is working. But that is Shanahan's stubbornness kicking in and it's limiting the 49ers offense. The same goes for any plays designed for Deebo Samuel. He is an automatic negative play to happen any time he is involved.

He dropped an actually pretty nice throw from Brandon Allen this past week against the Green Bay Packers. It would've generated a decent gain. Instead, it got intercepted because he couldn't reel in the catch. Samuel offers nothing as a receiver and can't even get half of his impact as a runner from last season.

Shanahan loves McCaffrey and Samuel. Those are his guys, so he wants to utilize them and have them be the hero. All Shanahan is doing is consistently limiting the offense. He's trying to fit a square peg into a triangle hole. He's trying to enter two plus two in the calculator hoping that it will equate to 22 because he feels he's a genius.

Shanahan is an amazing coach and play-caller, but this season is an off-one for him. Again, plenty of issues are ruining the 49ers offense this year and it is Shanahan at the forefront of those issues. Until he can adapt, which appears extremely unlikely this year, the 49ers will continue to be mediocre on offense.