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49ers HC Kyle Shanahan Explains Why Scoring is Down in the NFL

"Defenses are less aggressive than they used to be. I think they're a little smarter in that way."
Grant Cohn|
Mar 26, 2024; Orlando, FL, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan speaks to the media
Mar 26, 2024; Orlando, FL, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan speaks to the media | Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

ORLANDO -- An interesting phenomenon is taking place in the NFL.

The NFL constantly changes its rules in an attempt to increase scoring, plus it has determined that Kyle Shanahan's offensive system is the best one in football, which is why we see more and more teams run it every year.

And yet, NFL offenses averaged fewer than 22 points per game each of the past two seasons, which means scoring is down. How could that be?

Shanahan answered that question this week at the NFL Annual meeting. Here's what he said.

Q: League-wide scoring has been down for a couple years, and he has mentioned as one possibility the increase of two-high-safety looks. Is that something as an offensive play caller that you've seen a lot more of the past few years?

SHANAHAN: "Yeah, I'd say so. A little bit more two-shell than in the past. That could be. I think defenses are less aggressive than they used to be. I think they're a little smarter in that way. It's a little bit more bend-but-don't-break. There are so many ways offenses can attack defenses now that I think guys can't take as many risks with all the jet sweeps and all that stuff. Zone pressures -- you have to be able to do them against so many different formations and motions now, so it's tougher, and guys play a little more conservatively, which in the long run leads to less scoring. The less aggressive they are, the harder it is to get explosives."

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Grant Cohn
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.

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