How the NFL Has Caught up to Kyle Shanahan's Scheme

This season, teams are defending the 49ers offense differently.

SANTA CLARA -- No offense in the NFL has underperformed more than the 49ers offense this season.

They have some of the best weapons in the NFL -- Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk and George Kittle -- and yet their offense ranks just 18th in yards and 19th in points. To understand why, you must understand Kyle Shanahan's scheme.

Almost every offensive play Kyle Shanahan calls starts with a shift or a motion. While the rest of the NFL uses shifts and motions roughly 50 percent of the time, Shanahan uses it closer to 90 percent of the time. Here's why:

When an offense changes the strength of the formation (sends the tight end from one side to the other), the opposing defense usually counters by changing its play call. To do this, all 11 defenders must communicate on the field before the play while the offense is in motion. Shanahan wants the defense to communicate, because he's counting on one of the 11 defenders to mess up. He figures the more he shifts, the more opportunities for the opposition to make mistakes and give up big plays.

This season, teams are defending the 49ers offense differently. Instead of changing their play call every time the 49ers shift, they simply are going with their original play call no matter what and living with the results most of the time. 

So through six games, the 49ers offense is averaging 5.83 yards per play with pre-snap motion, and 5.53 yards per play without it -- not much difference. As opposed to last season, when the 49ers averaged a whopping 6.2 yards per play with motion and 5.72 yards per play without it. And in 2019 when they went to the Super Bowl, they averaged 6.17 yards per play with motion and 5.65 without it.

Pre-snap motion always has been the trick that makes Shanahan's offense work, but now it's not working nearly as effectively as it did in the past. Which means he needs a new trick pronto.

Let's see what he's got up his sleeve.