Those who opine that 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan must continue to evolve and adjust his offense have found someone who agrees.
His name is Kyle Shanahan.
Shanahan on Friday said the essence of coaching is to find a way to constantly adapt and get the most out of his personnel.
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Some adjustments are noticeable. Others are more subtle. But, rarely, do things remain unchanged from game to game, Shanahan said.
“That's what you try to do every single week,” Shanahan said before the 49ers traveled for their Week 16 game to face the Miami Dolphins. “That's what you try to always do.
“You don't just say, ‘Hey, today I'm going to try to run the wishbone offense and stuff.’ What are the players that you have? What do you believe in? And what gives those guys the best chance to succeed?“
The 49ers have been forced to do things differently on offense this season. They played the majority of the season without running back Christian McCaffrey, the NFL Offensive Player of the Year in 2023, and their top receiver, Brandon Aiyuk.
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The 49ers rank eighth in the NFL at 365.1 total offensive yards per game, while ranking 16th at 22.4 points per game.
Shanahan pointed out that changes were made to the offensive philosophy to open the 2022 season when Trey Lance opened the regular season as the starter. The 49ers shifted to an offense that placed an emphasis on the quarterback-driven run game.
“You saw a different offense when he got out there,” Shanahan said. “You see different things. You’ve got to adjust your players.”
Shanahan said he was not able to take the offense he ran with the Houston Texans to Washington more than a decade ago with Robert Griffin III as his quarterback.
“I had to do stuff that I'd never done before,” he said. “Not because you're just reinventing yourself or trying to change the league but because you're trying to figure out what can help the guys that you have be successful.
“And that can change all the time depending on the player's skillset. But I'd say as a coach that if you want to make it in this league and you want to have some success in this league you better be able to adjust to anything or you're only going to be successful when you have the perfect situations.”