CrimsonCrew wrote:Wrestled with whether to post this in this thread or the Shanahan thread. Figured it touches on enough bigger team stuff that it should go here.
No surprise to anyone who has followed the team, but Shanahan is extremely rigid and set in his ways. I think that's got to change and he has to show more flexibility on the offensive side of the ball. I have touched on this in other posts/threads, but one big place where this has to change - assuming we have designs on going forward with Purdy - is his inflexibility pre-snap. At least this past season, it sure seemed the Purdy could not adjust the play at the snap.
I know Shanahan would say that every play has a solution built into it, and it's the job of the players and the QB especially to get to that, but that can't be the end of it. If Purdy could have audibled into a run on the 3rd and 5 coming out of halftime, I'm almost certain we pick it up and win the game. Even if he or Kittle ran it (because they inexplicably had Kittle in the backfield instead of McCaffrey on the biggest play of the season). The Chiefs had two defenders - both LBs - inside the tackles and within ten yards of the LOS. You simply have to run the ball in that situation, especially against a blitz-happy, sticky man-coverage team.
If Shanahan is not willing to give Purdy that flexibility, then you are limiting the benefit Purdy brings as a cerebral player who sees the field well, has great feeling and anticipation, and should be able to become a coach on the field if he continues his trajectory to date. Take that away from him, and he almost certainly can't match the top tier of athletic QB. The hope is that, as Purdy gets more experience, Shanahan trusts him more with that. I'm not certain whether Matt Ryan was allowed to audible or not. May have to go back to some film. But Shanahan has not shown that openness with the Niners (not shocking with Jimmy G. at QB).
I think the use of Aiyuk factors into this inflexibility. I will start off by saying that I have not reviewed the film to confirm this - nor do I really intend to - but Aiyuk has perhaps fairly received some criticism for not stepping up when Deebo has been hurt. However, unlike many of the top WRs in the league who are used in a variety of ways to make them hard to defend, we basically only ever use Aiyuk in one role. He is the X receiver, he lines up split out on the LOS. And that's what he always is.
Teams like Dallas use Ceedee Lamb in a variety of ways. They line him up in the slot (a lot) to give him more room to maneuver. They motion him. They move him around the formation to get favorable matchups. We don't ever seem to do that with Aiyuk. And look, Aiyuk is excellent at the X position. That's why he had the incredibly efficient season he had. But when Deebo isn't out there, the Aiyuk usage is too predictable and other teams can take him away. Aiyuk runs excellent routes and is very good against both man and zone. He's an ideal X. But he's not limited to that.
Coming out of college, Aiyuk was known as a YAK player. He can do a lot more of that if we give him opportunities. I'm not saying he can ever be prime Deebo after the catch, but he can be very good if we give him more of the screens and short crossers that Deebo feasts on. His primary usage should still be the deep crossers and occasional gos and fades, but don't limit him to that. To be fair, I think a lot of the reason why we do that is because Deebo can't survive as the X, and needs the free release and some of the gimmicky stuff to really produce at the highest level. But we shouldn't limit Aiyuk because Deebo is limited. Especially when Deebo goes out of games.
I'd really like to add a receiver who is similar to Aiyuk in terms of versatility in the draft (this draft is CRAZY deep at receiver) so we have two starters who can threaten from multiple receiver spots. I know our offense is somewhat complex, but these guys need to be able to play more than one position. There is a parallel in our Aiyuk usage to what Kingsbury did to DeAndre Hopkins. He just lined him up at the same spot every play, and teams could very easily gameplan to shut down Hopkins. That worked well, because Hopkins was the #1 option by a mile. Aiyuk isn't. But if we're going to sign him to the big-money contract he deserves, we need to start treating him more like one and help him perform when there aren't as many threats on the field to draw the defense's eyes. And as with the limits to date on Purdy, if we're not using Aiyuk as creatively as we are Deebo, then he won't be worth the contract he's going to get.
Anyway, long rant, but it's an area where we we need to see growth from Kyle if we want to start having success with fewer blue chip players.
The biggest issue with Kyle IMO is he struggles with the fact he has imperfect players running his perfect scheme.
What I mean is he likely has the perfect play call more often than we think but it has so many moving parts that require perfect execution that one slip-up and the play becomes dead in the water.
That's why I've been pounding on the table for them to upgrade the offensive line because I feel it's more of an issue with the offensive line not being able to execute than Kyle's playcalling.
Kyle's offense completely falls apart when it goes against defensive lines that can physically dominate the trenches and a back end with no glaring weaknesses. The offensive hinges heavily on confusing the defense and when the defense can just flat-out ignore the smoke and mirrors and just physically dominate the offense becomes helpless to do anything.
Opposing defenses just focus on stuffing the run and when we try to pass to get them off run defense their back end can hold out long enough for their defensive line to get pressure and not give Purdy the time he needs to wait for someone to get themselves open.
Kyle just has too much faith in the scheme and system to overcome the weaknesses of the offensive line it bites us at the worst possible time because while the scheme works against probably 95% of the defenses in the league that 5% you will see in the playoffs eventually costs us dearly.
So while I do agree Kyle needs to loosen up and give Purdy some more freedom I ultimately don't think it matters if we don't have the offensive line that can hold up and start to impose it's will on defenses more.
