THE QB SHUFFLE
The 49ers’ new Trey Lance-led offense is a decade in the making
SANTA CLARA >> There was an unmistakable buzz at the start of 49ers training camp and a phrase that seemed to sum it all up:
“Eleven on eleven.” Niners players couldn’t stop saying it. They were downright giddy about the concept.
And on Sunday, we saw exactly what they were talking about.
Since Kyle Shanahan arrived in Santa Clara, the 49ers were effectively playing down a man — 10 on 11 — in the run game. The quarterback didn’t do anything but hand it off.
But with rookie quarterback Trey Lance in the game, defenses must re
spect the quarterback’s running ability. Now, the Niners are going 11-on-11.
And the Niners’ first two offensive series in their preseason finale against the Raiders at Levi’s Stadium — a 34-10 win — showed how effective 11-on-11 can be.
San Francisco scored twice on those drives while running a quarterback rotation between Jimmy Garoppolo and Lance, with the rookie running almost exclusively read-option.
The 49ers’ offense isn’t the only offense in the league that runs read-option — the Baltimore Ravens have torn up the league for a few years now with an option-heavy offense, led by 2019 NFL MVP Lamar Jackson.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen the 49ers run it, nor is it Shanahan’s first rodeo with read-options as a play-caller.
But this is, effectively, a new offense for San Francisco — one that will be phased in more and more in the weeks to come.
It’s nearly a decade, if not a century, in the making.
“I don’t think there are any more new plays in football,” Shanahan said last week. “Football has been played for a very long time. So, whenever anyone acts like they’ve invented a play, it might’ve been done 40 years ago out of a different formation. You look back to old school football with the veer and option football... all that stuff kind of comes full circle.”
Speaking of old school, legendary Ohio State coach Woody Hayes had a saying: “When you throw a pass, three things can happen to (the ball) and two of them are bad.”
Shanahan might not be that zealous about the run game, but as we saw in the 2019 playoffs, he’ll run the ball two dozen times in a row if the defense can’t stop it.
And that was when the Niners were running 10-on-11.
By having a running quarterback who can either give the ball to a running back or keep it himself on any given run play, an additional defender is taken out of the play. The possibility of a hand-off effectively blocks the player the offensive line has left open.
Shanahan ran read-option with aplomb when he was the offensive coordinator for his father, Mike Shanahan, in Washington.
Quarterback Robert Griffin III ran for 815 yards on 120 carries that rookie season with Shanahan, en route to the Rookie of the Year award and a Pro Bowl berth.
The former Heisman Trophy winner never matched the success of that season, though. But blame injuries, not the scheme.
“No, there isn’t anything to figure out. It’s a very sound scheme,” Shanahan said of the read-option in 2018.
“How do you want to attack it? What do you want to do off it when they 100% commit to stop it? You can, but that opens up everything else. So what do you do to scare them out of everything else? Is your quarterback good enough to run with the football to make them commit to stop it? Once they do, is he good enough to make the passes... that they just opened up.”
“It’s tough to find that guy. And if you don’t protect him right, if you don’t do the right stuff, it is tough to stay healthy.”
The Niners think they have found that guy in Lance. Seemingly all that stands between him and success is experience. The Niners are trying to manufacture that experience with the quarterback rotation — similar to what the Saints did with Taysom Hill and Drew Brees in recent years.
The Niners can get away with rotating quarterbacks because the read-option is so powerful.
“People talk about that 2012 year, but our running game was 70% outside zone,” Shanahan said in 2018. “It was one-third zone read. But everybody was scared of it, so they played for it every play, which is why Alfred Morris led the league in rushing... Defenses have been playing 11 against 10 for so long and now they have to play 11-on-11, and if you’re not, it changes everything you have to do.”
On the Shanahan’s staff in Washington in 2012 was Mike McDaniel. He was an offensive assistant on those Washington teams, and when Griffin was selected with the No. 2 overall pick in 2012, he said the entire Washington coaching staff learned read-option on the fly.
“It really shaped a lot of our careers in that regard because we did learn so much,” McDaniel said earlier this month. “What was unique is Kyle [Shanahan] and Coach [Mike] Shanahan, didn’t have anybody really on [their] staff that had experience with any of that stuff. So, we really, as a staff had to kind of piece it together and learn for ourselves, which is the most powerful way to learn. And it really changed the way you look at defensive schemes in general.”
“It’s not just manifesting itself this year. That’s been our whole career. It kind of opens your mind to how 11 men have to play defense and gap soundness and all sorts of things.”
Shanahan and McDaniel, now the 49ers’ offensive coordinator, have plenty more experience now, two Super Bowl losses for two different teams later. That bodes well for their second serious foray.
And the lessons learned from picking up Griffins’ collegiate scheme and building a playbook around it have clearly been cited often since the 49ers selected Lance.
As teams adjust to the basic read-option Lance displayed Sunday, the same adjustments those two made in Washington — the addition of bubble screens, run-pass options and motion runners — will return.