What makes the 49ers’ run game so explosive (2024)

As NFL teams are increasingly lining up in shotgun spread formations, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan and his small coaching tree are staying clear of trends by continuing to line up under center. The tight formations create favorable angles for the running game. The 49ers’ brand of offense clearly works in today’s NFL but Shanahan struggled to get the offense going in his first couple of years as the team’s head coach. There were early signs of it heading in the right direction but they finished 19th and 27th in weighted offensive DVOA (Football Outsider’s efficiency metric) in 2017 and 2018.

As with any system, talent is vital and general manager John Lynch and Shanahan have done an admirable job of collecting it in their three-year tenure by adding key players like right tackle Mike McGlinchey, fullback Kyle Juszczyk, tight end George Kittle, and quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. Last season, with experience running the offense and Garoppolo finally playing a full slate of games, the 49ers offense ranked seventh in weighted offensive DVOA and 12th in rushing DVOA despite suffering multiple key injuries throughout the season. According to Sharp Football Stats, the 49ers ranked sixth in explosive run (runs of 10+ yards) rate (13%) and were second only to Baltimore in total explosive runs (81).

When they were finally healthy, they dominated teams on the ground late in the season en route to a Super Bowl appearance. They were the best outside zone team in the league last year. According to Pro Football Focus, the 49ers averaged 5.2 yards per carry when they called outside zone, ranking third. The Ravens and Browns averaged more per carry but the 49ers nearly called as many outside zones as both teams combined.

Shanahan has gained a reputation with his players for his ability to accurately predict what defenses are going to throw at them and how to exploit them. Even his former players still sing his praises. Browns tight end Austin Hooper, who played for Shanahan with the Falcons, told Bleacher Report’s Adam Lefkoe how Shanahan would routinely call out what the defense would do in meetings and predicted that they would score against those looks.

“This guy is Nostradamus,” said Hooper. “This guy is a fortune teller. And it would happen every time. I mean, we scored so many points that year. Obviously, players were already bought in, but when the guy is shooting 90 percent at the free-throw line, you tend to believe he’s going to make it.”

His strategical prowess comes from wisdom passed down to him from his father, Mike Shanahan, who has decades of experience running the system in the NFL. Now, the younger Shanahan is taking what he was taught and continuing to tinker and add to it. He understands what problems his offense gives defenses and how to exacerbate them.

Here’s what makes the 49ers’ run game work:

Offensive line mastery:Talent isn’t the only factor. The system has proven over time that it usually takes a year to learn. In the 2018 offseason, I spoke to 49ers offensive line coach John Benton about it.

“The plays are easy to run,” said Benton. “That doesn’t take any time. As a matter fact, there aren’t a lot of schemes that are more simple. The finer details are what makes you good.”

When watching the film, the offensive line displayed extraordinary awareness and made key blocks that sprung running backs, oftentimes unblocked, into the secondary. They’ve mastered the scheme. Though they don’t always block every play perfectly, they rarely miss an assignment. Some would argue consistently blocking the right guys is more important than physically dominating defenders if you’re missing assignments.

TE shifts:Defenses have specified strong side ends and linebackers that they want to line up on the tight end side to become stouter against the run. But simply shifting the tight end to the other side of the formation before the snap puts opposing defenses at a disadvantage. Defenses could make some small movements to adjust to the shift but they usually won’t have their entire front flip sides and risk being caught out of position when the ball is snapped.

Fly Motion: Usually, a receiver would run the fly motion and go straight across the formation. The ball is snapped before he crosses the quarterback so the threat that he could get the ball and threaten the perimeter is presented to the defense. It’s nothing new and has been used in football forever but has really come back into vogue in the last few years. It doesn’t take a lot of time to install, though getting the timing down with the snap could be tricky.

Use of the FB:I asked former Rams defensive coordinator Wade Phillips what makes the 49ers’ offense so tough to defend.

“Their zone scheme and they have good backs — one of few with a fullback,” said Phillips. “Their two-back offense is different and gives you an extra blocker in the running game.”

Fullbacks were starting to go extinct before Shanahan and Juszczyk reminded the league how versatile they are in the run game and in the passing game. Juszczyk changes the geometry for the entire offense with his ability to make a variety of blocks from the backfield and he’s difficult to match up with because he’s far too athletic for a run thumping linebacker to cover him in man coverage.

Built-in Checks:Shanahan teaches his quarterback what defensive looks give certain run concepts trouble so he’ll have built-in checks to switch sides, add another blocker in the box, or audible into specific pass concepts to take advantage of the look.

Let’s take a look at specific examples of these elements in play and how they help create explosive runs:

Weakside inside zone with Y-shift and F-Sift

Week 5, 2019, first quarter, 13:28, first-and-10

The 49ers came out in an I-strong formation with Kittle to the left and twins (two receivers) to the right. The Browns put their strong safety on the twins side, leaving only a corner on Kittle’s side. Juszczyk initially lined up offset to the strong side (left) but motioned toward the right, which triggered the Browns linebackers to bump over a gap.

They flowed to the play side hard in anticipation of outside zone. However, the 49ers ran inside zone. On outside zone, the running back will typically either bounce outside or make a vertical cut but on inside zone, the back will usually cut back across the grain.

The left guard Laken Tomlinson was likely supposed to get to the Sam linebacker (No. 51) but got tripped by the three-technique defensive tackle (No. 98). The linebackers flowed so hard with Juszczyk’s motion that the Sam (No. 51) ended up falling right into Tomlinson’s path, so he just blocked him.

Kittle was assigned to block the Sam and you could see him looking for him but once he saw that Tomlinson blocking him, he made a heads up play by looking for the next defender. He turned around and blocked the cornerback. Juszczyk had a sift block, meaning he was responsible for blocking the first defender outside of the tackle, the defensive end (No. 54).

Running back Matt Breida read the defensive flow and cut back right underneath of Juszczyk and Kittle’s block and then he just beat the middle of the field safety with pure speed.

The play was executed exactly how it was drawn up but because the 49ers understand the concept so well, they are able to effortlessly flow into the correct contingencies and create an explosive play. The 49ers averaged 5.1 yards per carry on inside zone, ranking second in the league.

.@MattBreida reached 22.30 MPH on his 83-yard TD run, the fastest speed reached by a ball carrier in the past 2 seasons! 🔥 (via @NextGenStats) pic.twitter.com/xnPWgnOdxQ

— NFL (@NFL) October 8, 2019

Strongside outside zone with Y-shift and FB sift

Week 13, 2019, second quarter, 9:40, first-and-10

This play is the outside zone version of the play above. The fullback has a sift block. He has to work across the formation to block the first player outside of the backside tackle like in the last play. But in this version, the 49ers are trying to attack the perimeter of the defense with outside zone.

Before the snap, Kittle shifted across the formation to change the strength of the formation. The Ravens lined up their strongside linebacker Matt Judon to the offensive left and weakside linebacker Jaylon Ferguson to the right.

This is a Mike declared play, which means that the center should be working to the Mike linebacker Josh Bynes (No. 57), while the frontside double team works to the play side linebacker LJ Fort (No. 58). Usually, against this front, the guard and tackle would double team the three-technique defensive tackle to the play side linebacker but they single blocked the defensive tackle and doubled the defensive end with Kittle and McGlinchey.

With the double team happening outside, the play side linebacker made a smart play by knifing underneath the guard’s block into the A-gap. Running back Raheem Mostert made a great play by quickly changing his angle to narrowly get away from the play side linebacker. McGlinchey made an even more impressive play. He somehow sensed that PSLB would play the A-gap, while his head was pointing to the play side end. He smoothly changed directions and took a great angle to block Bynes and ensured that Mostert wouldn’t be caught from behind.

The strong safety followed Kittle across the formation when he motioned, but Richie James made a great block inside the box to spring Mostert. The offense left cornerback Marcus Peters (No. 24) unblocked on this play based on the presumption that corners are usually the worst tacklers on the team.

Peters proved them right by whiffing on the tackle. It’s hard to tell but he might not have even gotten a hand on Mostert, who gave him a little baby stiff arm. The 49ers work on blocking with their wide receivers religiously and it has paid off — it’s a big reason why the 49ers had so many explosive runs.

Raheem Mostert getting on the board against his old squad 💪 @RMos_8Ball

(via @NFL) pic.twitter.com/g6PjRsl6Fj

— The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) December 1, 2019

Outside zone (push scheme) with fly motion in the opposite direction

Week 14, 2019, second quarter, 7:13, first-and-10

The 49ers use fly motion often and expertly. They will run fly motion toward the direction of a called run play or away from it depending on how they want to influence a defense. For their inside zone plays, the play usually cuts back so they’ll run fly motion in the same direction as the zone to create more flow in that direction to open up the cutback lane. For their outside zone plays, they want to get linebackers to flow in the opposite direction so they’ll call fly motion away from the zone.

Here, Shanahan called outside zone right with fly motion going left, toward the weakside. Before the fly motion, Kittle shifted to the right which caused the linebackers to bump over a gap before the fly motion. The 49ers had a push call, which meant the play side guard had to work all the way to the strong safety in the box to the right and the backside guard had to work all the way to the Mike.

The fly motion froze the linebackers for a second, helping the linemen get to their assignments.

Using motion is an easy way of creating problems for defenses in the run game but not every offense likes to do it because it causes defenders to move right before the snap, which could confuse the blocking scheme. The 49ers are prepared for how defenders will react to their shifts and motions. They have a good idea of where the defenders will move and how to block them. The 49ers coaching staff does an excellent job of preparing its offensive line for defensive movement, so it is comfortable using pre-snap movement.

Shotgun power

Week 12, 2019, first quarter, 5:46, first-and-10

This play became one of the 49ers’ most consistent run concepts later in the year. Most of the 49ers’ run game is under center but the 49ers got quite a few explosive runs from this play in the second half of the season. It’s essentially a long trap, though some may call it an adjusted one-back power scheme. The front side of the line down blocks and leaves the end unblocked. The backside guard pulls and kicks the end out. The tight end is responsible for the play side linebacker whether he’s on the ball or off it.

Last season, the Packers lived and died in sub-packages and light boxes. Though the theory of defending the pass first at all cost may work in today’s age for most offenses, it proved to be a death sentence against the 49ers. In their regular season (Week 12) and postseason matchup (NFC Championship), the 49ers combined for 397 yards on 64 carries (6.2 yards per carry).

The Packers lined up in a light box with three interior defensive linemen, two outside linebackers, and one off-ball linebacker. Strong safety Adrian Amos (No. 31) was the sixth defender in the box but didn’t offer much resistance in run support and was blocked by Bourne, who was lined up in the slot. Garoppolo might have seen Amos go into the box and made an adjustment himself by motioning Bourne over to block Amos.

With Amos being blocked, the offense was able to get two blockers on the lone off-ball linebacker Blake Martinez (No. 50). Kittle was assigned to block him and the play side guard and center double-teamed the nose to Martinez as well.

Left guard Laken Tomlinson, who has quietly become one of the most reliable guards in the NFL, helped on the nose tackle, turned in the opposite direction, and made a perfectly time blocked on Martinez’s inside shoulder. Kittle came from the outside so he wouldn’t have been able to get inside of him to open up the lane that running back Jeff Wilson Jr. ran through.

Wilson showed superb vision and quick reaction by seeing the block being made and squeezing through the hole for a big gain.

F- Counter with fake reverse

Defensively, when fitting against zone schemes, it’s about maintaining gap integrity. Against man schemes, it’s more about blowing up the point of attack. Teams that are zone-based don’t typically run gap schemes well because the zone schemes require smaller quicker linemen and those teams have to dedicate most of their practice time refining their zone plays.

The 49ers are adept at both. They don’t run man schemes (power, trap, counter) as often as zone schemes but when they do, they averaged a respectable 4.67 yards per carry.

Week 3, 2019, fourth quarter, 9:42, second-and-5

Their F-counter scheme initially looks just like their inside zone play with a fullback lead toward the edge. The point of attack was to the offensive right but most of the line down blocked in the opposite direction, which added to the illusion of them running a zone play to the left.

Juszczyk took a couple of steps outside like he was leading blocking for turning in the opposite direction to block the play side linebacker. Juszczyk made a great downfield cut block to spring Mostert. Kittle made a great block by nudging the four-technique defensive tackle before blocking the backside inside linebacker.

Edge T.J. Watt, who would typically have to watch for the cutback, boot, or reverse on a run play going away from him, went too far upfield because of the fake reverse to receiver Marquise Goodwin and got kicked out by Tomlinson pulling from the offensive left. Linebacker Devin Bush (No. 55) saw Tomlinson pull but he was too wide and got hit with a perfect downfield cut block by Juszczyk.

With all the pre-snap movement that already makes the 49ers game difficult to deal with, their ability to effectively run man-blocking schemes adds another dimension that defenses have to be prepared for.

Deebo Reverse

Deebo Samuel became a huge part of the 49ers run game later in the year. In the last eight games including the postseason, he had 224 yards rushing on 15 carries (14.9 yards per carry). He had some carries as a traditional back but most of his runs came on clever reverse designs.

Week 17, 2019, first quarter, 0:59, second-and-4

On this play against the Seahawks, the 49ers faked an F-counter and then handed the ball to Samuel running a reverse.

Juszczyk faked like he was going to lead up to the linebacker but pirouetted back outside to lead block for Samuel. The 49ers also run a version of this with Kittle making the “pirouette lead block”.

Plays like this help protect the 49ers’ base run concepts by keeping defenders on their toes. They don’t allow opposing defenses to feel comfortable aggressively pursuing and swarming the 49ers’ base runs.

Deebo Samuel put 'em in a spin cycle.

30 yards for the @49ers TD! #GoNiners @19problemz

📺: #SFvsSEA on NBC
📱: NFL app // Yahoo Sports app
Watch free on mobile: https://t.co/iuRyhLy3dR pic.twitter.com/YwlxetBr2P

— NFL (@NFL) December 30, 2019

Inside zone with man blocking backside

There are full flow zone concepts in which the entire offensive line zone blocks and there are split-flow concepts in which the front side of the offensive line zone blocks and the backside man blocks. Because they are so effective at it, the 49ers like to have either Juszczyk or Kittle lead block into the man blocking side on their split-flow concepts.

Week 14, 2019, second quarter, 2:49, first-and-10

On this play, the 49ers had a split zone concept called to the right. So the center, right guard, and right tackle blocked regular inside zone, while the backside (left) was assigned a man to block. Tomlinson had to block the one-technique defensive tackle, left tackle Joe Staley had the end, and Kittle had to fold inside and lead up to the hole to block weak inside linebacker Craig Robertson.

Robertson flowed too hard toward the zone side and caused Kittle to run right into the one-technique defensive tackle, sealing him inside and ensuring there would be a clean cutback lane for Breida.

Bourne, who was also lined up in the bunch, blocked safety Vonn Bell in the box, and left cornerback PJ Williams unblocked. Williams was in man coverage and followed Bourne as he blocked Bell. He was in decent position to make a tackle on Breida but failed to do so. Again, this is why the 49ers chose to prioritize blocking safeties over corners.

Shanahan is a savant in understanding how defenses will line up against his offense. The defensive look that the Saints were lined up in was exactly what the 49ers were looking for. But he also has tags and specific audibles that he’ll add into his runs that quarterbacks have to activate against unfavorable looks.

For example, if he doesn’t want his team running split flow into an eight-man box, he would tag a “drift” concept with the play as a secondary play call. If the quarterback sees a loaded box, he could cancel the first play call and the offense would know to run the drift concept.

Super Bowl, 2019, third quarter, 5:23, first-and-10

Against the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, it appeared the 49ers got a nice gain out of the play on first-and-10. As Kittle motioned across the formation, safety Tyrann Mathieu stepped up into the box. Garoppolo saw him and made a check. The offense signaled that it got the check and made its adjustments.

It appeared the defense also made a check and dropped into a two-deep coverage but it was too late for the offense to make another check, so they ran the play. Samuel ran the drift route on the backside. The defense bit on the play-action and Samuel got open behind them for a 16-yard gain on the first play of the drive.

Deebo is balling. #GoNiners

📺: #SBLIV on FOX
📱: NFL app // Yahoo Sports app pic.twitter.com/TiGazyutU1

— NFL (@NFL) February 3, 2020

Usually, these longer play calls or two-play calls are made on the first play of the drive. Shanahan offenses throughout the years have been explosive on the first play of drives. According to Pro Football Focus’ Seth Galina,of the top six teams in first plays of each drive in the last four seasons, four had Kyle Shanahan calling plays from them (2016 Falcons, 2017 49ers, 2018 49ers, 2019 49ers). Shanahan knows how defenses will line up against him and knows how to attack them with his running game. And if he guessed wrong, he usually has a contingency built in his play call.

Now slant tag

The 49ers will also tag a slant on the backside or their run plays to give Garoppolo an option to throw it if he sees a certain look or hears from Shanahan in his earpiece in between plays that the backside of the defense is pursuing too hard.

Week 17, 2019, third quarter, 4:46

Here, the 49ers have an outside zone left concept called with Samuel in a tight split to the right running a “now slant”.

With six defenders lined up on the line of scrimmage, Garoppolo knew he would have room to throw the slant.

As the offensive line and running back executed their outside zone blocks, Garoppolo took a one-step drop to throw the ball to Samuel, instead of running down his regular path to hand off the ball.

This type of defensive alignment known as a tilt front gave the Rams a lot of trouble in Super Bowl LIII against the Patriots. If the Rams had this simple tag in, it might have discouraged the Patriots from lining up in their tilt front so often, which might have helped the Rams open up their running game. I’m not saying they would have won the Super Bowl but it would have been a helpful answer to have for the problem that the Patriots presented. It is the multitudes of checks and tags like this that make Shanahan’s offense so complete and hard to stop.

The 49ers run game will look different next year with Staley (retired) being replaced with Trent Williams, a battle at right guard, and some question to who the lead backs will be with Breida being traded and Mostert demanding a trade. However, Shanahan’s system has proven to work with different personnel, especially at running back. Offenses that become trendy typically become easier to defend because defenses see it so often and become accustomed to them. As Shanahan’s coaching tree expands, defenses are seeing more and more variations of it throughout the league. As mentioned, Shanahan’s system is just more complete and he’s has added effective tweaks to it every year. It’ll be interesting to see how the system once again evolves as the 49ers try to get back to the Super Bowl.

(Photo by Michael Zagaris/San Francisco 49ers / Getty Images)