The Main Improvement the 49ers Need Going Into 2024

Offensive line is one of the areas that gets cited for the 49ers to improve on, but there is one other area where they really need to be better at going into 2024.

It's generally tough to nitpick the improvements the San Francisco 49ers need to make.

The fact is that they were just in the Super Bowl, so there isn't too much for them to change. Offensive line is one area that is glaring, and so is cornerback to a degree. But there is one facet of the 49ers where they need to make their main improvement going into 2024.

That improvement resides with head coach Kyle Shanahan and his passing game. In the Super Bowl against the Kansas City Chiefs, the 49ers' passing offense was hardly effective. That is because the Chiefs made the ground game of the 49ers obsolete.

For the 49ers to be successful through the air, they desperately need their running game to be a factor. It doesn't have to be dominant. It just has to be sufficient to where they can utilize it to the point a defense has some issues with it. That wasn't the case in the Super Bowl.

Shanahan is so reliant on the run game for his pass game to work. It is tied to the run, so if a defense is good enough to take that away, then the 49ers' passing attack will struggle. It wasn't solely against the Chiefs either. It occurred against practically every AFC team the 49ers faced in 2023.

Against the Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens, and even the Cincinnati Bengals the 49ers struggled passing. The pass plays were lacking and became predictable when the run couldn't garner any real traction. So, for the 49ers to really improve on offense in 2024, Shanahan needs to get in the lab and work on a better plan for an outright drop back passing game.

This is why the 49ers struggle to come back from deficits. When a team is trailing, they aren't going to call run plays as often. And for a team that is so run heavy like the 49ers, they start to look like a panicking unit when they are trailing and can't use their run game.

Shanahan must figure out how to work around that. He has the quarterback he needs in Brock Purdy and more than enough weapons to create an effective straightforward drop back passing game. If he is the touted offensive mind that he gets credit for, then he should be able to do it when 2024 arrives.