Tight formation a staple of the 49ers
When the 49ers offense takes the field in Allegiant Stadium, there's a good chance they'll be doing so with all their players lined up between the hash marks.
The tight formation, also known as condensed, has been a staple of head coach Kyle Shanahan's offense for years. Teams can run it with a variety of personnel groupings, on any down, with the quarterback under center or in the shotgun. They can call straight dropbacks, running plays, or play-action out of the alignment.
Nobody does it more than San Francisco; this year's 49ers offense has aligned at an average of 19.9 yards wide — the tightest since Next Gen Stats began tracking in 2017.
The trend provides a window into the mind of Shanahan.
The play-calling savant who played receiver in college is always trying to find new ways to spring receivers open. His fascination with condensed formations, he said Wednesday, began in his first NFL job, as a quality control coach in 2004 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“I was drawing everything in books and stuff, and everything was drawn up in wide splits,” Shanahan said. “Nothing was
tight splits. And I always looked at everything when I first started through a receiver's standpoint.”
So, why does the tight formation work? NFL writer Ben Solak, who identified the trend in a piece for The Ringer, can explain.
“Tight formations create predictable coverages,” Solak wrote. “Because wide receivers are so close to the formation, they can more readily get involved in run blocking. Accordingly, safeties have to get into the box and defend the run. Defenses are forced to deploy single-high coverages to get that additional box safety — and with singlehigh coverages come isolated outside corners playing with that outside leverage.
“When you know what the safety shell is going to
be, and you know the leverage of the corner, and you know both of these things pre-snap? Man, does hitting those in-breakers get easier.”
At first, for Shanahan, the alignment was just a way to give his receivers fewer instances in which their defensive backs would jam them at the line of scrimmage. It has since evolved, as Shanahan has, to incorporate more running plays by leveraging how safeties react to the formation.
The running part is key. Downfield blocking is an emphasis for every 49er receiver under Shanahan. In tight formations, wideouts are always in the play, so they never have an opportunity to throw a lazy block without the risk of sabotaging the play.