ORLANDO, Fla. — Tuesday saw San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan cover a broad array of topics at the coaches’ breakfast, a staple of the annual NFL owners’ meetings.
Some of the changes that’ll be part of the 49ers’ bid to fix their sagging run defense featured prominently in the discussion.
“We got beat on some crack tosses a little too much, and once that did happen, it didn’t stop,” Shanahan said of the 2023 season. “We got more crack tosses ran on us than I’d ever seen in my career. When you don’t stop that right away, then people keep attacking it. I think that made it a bigger challenge for us and something we’ve got to get better at.”
Advertisement
The 49ers, who ranked No. 2 in expected points added (EPA) per play against the run in 2022, dropped to No. 26 in 2023. Their biggest struggles came in the postseason and especially during the NFC Championship Game, when the Detroit Lions gashed them repeatedly in the first half.
Since then, the 49ers have made significant changes to their defense. Shanahan fired coordinator Steve Wilks shortly after the Super Bowl. He replaced him with Nick Sorensen, an in-house hire. He supplemented that move by adding Brandon Staley, the former Los Angeles Chargers coach who now has an assistant head coach title, to infuse new ideas into the 49ers defense.
GO DEEPER
49ers to promote Sorensen to DC, hire Staley as assistant HC
“Nick’s going to call the plays; Brandon will be a big part of the game plans,” Shanahan said. “(Staley) has been a big part of free agency already. Knows a lot of ball, has run a lot of schemes — happy that he’s part of ours now. I was just pumped to be able to get Brandon. I was hoping to stay in-house and do what we had done in the past on defense. But being able to get Brandon (on top of that) was huge.”
When the 49ers let go of Wilks, Shanahan cited a disconnect between the front and back ends of the defense — which he suggested was connected to misalignments at linebacker. The 49ers believed their 2023 defense had strayed too far from its previous ways.
So the move to Sorensen is an attempt to rediscover past effectiveness against the run, and the addition of Staley is designed to continue the evolution of a pass defense that made some key strides under Wilks. Cornerbacks Charvarius Ward and Deommodore Lenoir are coming off their best seasons.
Of course, last season’s struggles against the run couldn’t be entirely chalked up to coaching. Acknowledging that, the 49ers have also overhauled the personnel along their defensive line this month.
GO DEEPER
The 49ers' big defensive line reboot: What they have and what might be next
Their decision to release tackle Arik Armstead after the veteran declined to take a pay cut highlighted an emphasis on durability (Armstead missed 13 games over the past two seasons). Their addition of tackles Maliek Collins and Jordan Elliott, both of whom weigh over 300 pounds, marked a physical shift up front.
Advertisement
“He’s really big,” Shanahan said of Elliott, who started for the Cleveland Browns over the past two seasons, “especially the size he plays with. We’re just trying to balance out our guys. You don’t want all the same body types. What we got with Maliek and what we got with Jordan — we get a few different sizes and styles of play there.”
Shanahan said the 49ers will likely still hire an assistant defensive line coach to replace Darryl Tapp, who left for the Washington Commanders. But he noted that head 49ers’ D-line coach Kris Kocurek seems satisfied with his refreshed unit up front, which also features new defensive ends Leonard Floyd and Yetur Gross-Matos.
“It was really hard to see with Arik — that was tough,” Shanahan said. “But I think when it was all said and done, Kris was pumped. We had a lot of guys on one-year deals. We knew we were going to have to do something, trying to get our own guys back, trying to get new guys. When it was all said and done, with all the size in the middle, we feel really good about the group.”
The linebacker level has presented another vulnerability, given that Dre Greenlaw is recovering from a torn Achilles and seems likely to begin the 2023 season on the physically unable to perform list. To assuage that, the 49ers signed 30-year-old De’Vondre Campbell, who began his career in 2016 with the Atlanta Falcons — when Shanahan was the offensive coordinator there.
“Him and Deion Jones, their rookie years, they played that entire year,” Shanahan said. “For him to do it at such a young age right away on some big stages, I was always impressed with him early on. And I’ve been even more impressed with him in recent years.”
The 49ers signed Campbell to a one-year deal worth up to $5 million, essentially maxing out their budget for the linebacker position.
Advertisement
They still have some cap space allocated to spend for a safety, another position that’s a key piece of the puzzle to fix a languishing run defense. Shanahan said the team expects Talanoa Hufanga, who tore his ACL in November, back at some point during training camp. But the 49ers want to fortify themselves with more safety depth to mix with Hufanga and second-year man Ji’Ayir Brown.
“We’d like to add, but I’m also real comfortable with how Ji’Ayir played last year,” Shanahan said. “Everyone knows what Huf has done, and it’s always scary coming back from an ACL. But once you come back in this day and age, it’s usually OK.”
The 49ers have hosted two veteran safeties, Rayshawn Jenkins and Julian Blackmon, this month but have yet to make a move at that position. Notably, Shanahan told Blackmon that he wouldn’t be guaranteed a starting spot if he signed.
Competition, optionality and depth are of clear importance to a 49ers defense looking to reinvigorate itself.
Free, daily NFL updates direct to your inbox. Sign up
Free, daily NFL updates direct to your inbox. Sign up
Buy
Extra points
• Shanahan is ready for mid-April, which is when he can resume work with third-year quarterback Brock Purdy.
“I’m just pumped Brock gets an offseason,” Shanahan said. “His first season, he didn’t get much of one because he was the third quarterback. Last year, he couldn’t throw with us until training camp. This year, he just got married and he’s fully healthy. He’s going to come back here in a couple weeks and we’ll get going. I’m just pumped to be able to go through the film with him and be on the field with him.”
Purdy finished with the No. 1 QBR in the NFL last season and was an MVP finalist. So what’s the next step in his development?
“Getting more consistent on everything,” Shanahan said. “(In 2022), he had seven games. When you have a whole season, there’s so much tape to go over. That takes a long time to get through. You always want to be perfect, and no one ever will be. But when you have the reps that he’s had, now he can review that stuff and take it to the field. So when we get back on April 15 together, we’ll look at all the quick game, all the five-step drops, all the seven-step drops, the play action, the movement, all that stuff that (Brian) Griese and (Klay) Kubiak will take a look at and work on every day.”
Griese and Kubiak, the 49ers’ two QB coaches, will have a new pupil in the room once the 49ers resume work. That’s Joshua Dobbs, whom the 49ers signed to compete for the backup job with Brandon Allen last week.
“I thought he was real tough to play against, especially in Arizona, the way he ran their scheme,” Shanahan said of Dobbs. “I thought he made them a really tough team to beat. I loved how consistent he was. You could tell that whatever their game plan was, he executed it extremely well. And I loved how competitive he was when he ran.”
Advertisement
• Shanahan acknowledged the importance of retaining receiver Brandon Aiyuk, whose representation is in talks with the 49ers about a new contract.
“It’s huge,” Shanahan said. “It’s hard to be successful at quarterback if you don’t have good receivers. So it starts there with Brandon and I think that’s really big for Brock and his future, making sure we have a good group for him going forward.”
Multiple 49ers executives vacationed in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, last week. They ran into Aiyuk there.
“He was randomly at our hotel,” Shanahan said. “He’s doing good. Hopefully, we get this done sooner rather than later. … I’ve seen him a couple of times and we’ve been good. I think Brandon understands the situation. And I’m excited to get him back here playing for us.”
GO DEEPER
49ers have no plans to trade Brandon Aiyuk, GM says
• Shanahan said new 49ers assistant Mick Lombardi, the former offensive coordinator of the Las Vegas Raiders, doesn’t doesn’t have a formal title yet. But Lombardi will help in the pass game coordinator role vacated by Klint Kubiak, who left to be the offensive coordinator of the New Orleans Saints.
Lombardi was an assistant QBs coach with the New England Patriots in 2019, Tom Brady’s last season with the team. He then became New England’s wide receivers coach for two seasons before leaving to join the Raiders, so his specialty does seem to be in the passing game.
(Top photo of Kyle Shanahan: Nathan Ray Seebeck / USA Today)