How Kyle Shanahan Revived the 49ers Offense

Shanahan used a pass-first approach against the Jaguars this Sunday. And it worked.

Grant Cohn | Nov 13, 2023

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San Francisco 49ers

Kyle Shanahan needed to tweak the 49ers offense during the bye week, and he did. And his tweak was effective.

He realized his run-first approach wasn't working anymore -- his run game was getting shut down early in games and he was falling behind, which led to all kinds of problems for the 49ers. They're not built to come from behind. They're built to take an early lead and hold onto it.

So Shanahan used a pass-first approach against the Jaguars this Sunday. And it worked. Through three quarters, Shanahan called 24 passes and just 15 runs, and the 49ers scored 24 points. The game essentially was over at that point. In the fourth quarter, the 49ers ran the ball to use up the clock.

But when the game was a game, the 49ers passed more than they ran, which made the run game more efficient, and took advantage of all the weapons the 49ers have on offense. When they run the ball, the only weapon they take advantage of is Christian McCaffrey -- everyone else has to block. But when they pass, opposing defenses have to cover McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, George Kittle and Kyle Juszczyk -- an impossible task.

In the past, Shanahan called a run-heavy offense because he didn't trust his quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, for good reason -- he's terrible. A turnover waiting to happen.

Brock Purdy is not terrible. In fact, he's quite good. It's nice to see Shanahan finally trust him and put the game in his hands.

Published Nov 13, 2023

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.