MIAMI — It was very early.
That is when Kyle Juszczyk realized what the deal was with his new head coach. When he realized the NFL meeting he was sitting in was more akin to a master class in offensive creativity and that the coach in charge was professorial in his breadth of knowledge.
This was three years ago, and the 49ers fullback was taken aback by what he heard from Kyle Shanahan. This takes some doing, considering Juszczyk went to Harvard.
“It was a simple wide-zone run play, but he literally broke down how every player on the field, all 22 players, had an effect on that play,’’ Juszczyk told The Post this week. “His ability to explain every single player’s role and what their job was on that play, how it affected the play and just to go into detail on every single one of ’em, was extremely impressive.’’
Shanahan is only 40 years old, but in many ways he has been preparing for this — putting his team on the field Sunday against the Chiefs in Super Bowl 2020 — for almost forever. He was a 14-year-old ball boy for the 49ers in 1994 when his father, Mike Shanahan, as offensive coordinator won a Super Bowl. He was 24 when he was hired by Jon Gruden as an offensive assistant with the Buccaneers. He was 28 when he became the NFL’s youngest play-caller, with the Texans in 2008. He was 37 when he called the shots for the high-flying Falcons, who took a 28-3 lead on the Patriots in a Super Bowl and then proceeded to blow it, showering Kyle Shanahan with criticism he accepts and moved on from.
Those close to him are in awe of the way his mind sees and directs offensive football. He took the zone-blocking scheme his father used to win two Super Bowls with the Broncos and added onto those concepts. He inhaled Gruden’s massive playbook and later Gary Kubiak’s more simplified scheme to form his own system. He added onto all this, with jet-sweeps and creative motion and play-action that takes the pressure off his quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, and adjusts from game-to-game, bending and shaping the plays he calls based on what is working and what is not. Thus, the 49ers won a game this season with Garoppolo throwing for 349 yards in a 48-46 shootout in New Orleans and 37-20 last week in the playoffs when Garoppolo threw only eight passes, as the 49ers ran at will, time and time again, on the Packers.
Getty Images“It’s one of the things we love about Kyle, the way he calls plays, he’s going to do whatever it takes to put us in position to be successful,’’ left tackle Joe Staley said.
“He’s not pigeonholed into one certain scheme,’’ Juszczyk said. “Whatever’s working that day, whether it’s the wide zone, whether it’s a gap scheme, whether it’s inside zone, whether it’s running the ball or throwing the ball, he just will use whatever works that day.’’
Shanahan’s formative NFL years were spent sitting in defensive meeting rooms in Tampa, where he grew to understand the responsibilities of every defensive player on every play. This is why at times, it seems as if he knows how the opposing defense will react and stays a step ahead.
Since 2014, Shanahan’s offenses in Cleveland, Atlanta and San Francisco always ranked in the top five in the league in use of motion and shifts, according to Pro Football Focus. The past three years, the 49ers are No. 1.
The Shanahan mantra: If you give an opposing defense the opportunity to make a mistake, it usually will.
The Shanahan method is often to have two running backs on the field — usually a sign a run is forthcoming. Yet Shanahan passes out of two-back sets more than anyone else. He calls for crossing routes until a defense expects them and then changes to bootleg throwbacks. Shanahan is renowned for his zone running game, but when a defense anticipates this, he adjusts to gap or power runs.
To Mike McGlinchey, the starting right tackle, Shanahan “uses every play like a puzzle piece,’’ watching how the defense reacts and then using that awareness to dial up a different call that baits the defense into an overreaction.
“He manipulates a defense’s responsibilities against them constantly,’’ McGlinchey said.
In the third year of his operation, Shanahan has expanded his playbook.
“The more you see how people try to defend you and how people stop you, the more things you try to put in to counteract that,” Shanahan said.
Tight end George Kittle said his head coach is so well-versed in blocking angles that the running game is almost impossible to stop.
“Just the fact we basically install new plays every single week, we have a whole new playbook every single week, it makes football really fun,’’ Kittle said.
Shanahan does not lack for confidence, but he is not embracing the labels attacked to him like Velcro.
“No, I don’t consider myself an offensive guru,’’ he said.
Others are sure he deserves to be singled out.
“Whatever word you want to use for it,’’ Juszczyk said. “I like to say ‘wizard.’ I think he’s second to none as far as an offense mind.’’
And does this give the 49ers an advantage on Sunday?
“I think,’’ Juszczyk said, “there’s no question.’’
For more on Super Bowl 2020, listen to the latest episode of the “Gang’s All Here” podcast:
