How the 49ers Plan to Shut Down Geno Smith

Shanahan can't help but reveal his true feelings about him.

SANTA CLARA -- Kyle Shanahan often talks in code about quarterbacks.

He always praises them, but not in the same way every time. And sometimes his praise isn't really praise at all. It's a backhanded compliment at best, or a condemnation at worst.

That's why I like to ask Shanahan every week about the upcoming opponent's quarterback -- this time it's Seahawks QB Geno Smith. Shanahan can't help but reveal his true feelings about him.

"Geno’s done some good things," Shanahan said on Tuesday, implying Smith also has done some bad things. "He's earned this role to get to where he has been these last two years. Geno is really good at kind of attacking the defense, take what they give him. The goal is to hopefully make him one dimensional and try to get them to have to make some bigger plays and not just stay within the scheme." 

TRANSLATION: The way to stop Geno Smith is to take away his run game and his check downs and to make him throw difficult passes into tight windows downfield. Sounds like a very polite way for Shanahan to say he doesn't respect Smith.

In the locker room, Nick Bosa echoed Shanahan's sentiments but in a much more plainspoken way: "Just be good in the run game to start off, make him play quarterback. And then I think they run the most boots of any team, so be good there. And just get pressure on him."

It's clear the 49ers feel the Seahawks hide Smith behind their run game and quick passing game. They want to take those things away and put the game in Smith's hands, and "make him play quarterback."

I guess the 49ers don't think he can do that.