The San Francisco 49ers are 2-2 and about to begin a difficult four-game stretch before they head into their bye week. The team's issues early on have mostly been on the defensive side. But the offense has been far from perfect, especially in the red zone, where they have settled for too many field goals, instead of scoring touchdowns.
Greg Papa, the radio play-by-play voice of the 49ers, sat down with 49ers Head Coach Kyle Shanahan on NBC Sports Bay Area's "49ers Game Plan," and discussed, among other things, the team's red zone offense. Papa mentioned that the 49ers' red zone offense from 2023 was the best in the league, converting 67% of red zone trips into touchdowns. This season, however, they have not been nearly as efficient, converting on about 50% of trips inside the 20-yard line.
Papa mentioned that not having RB Christian McCaffrey has likely affected that. Last season, McCaffrey scored 18 of his 21 touchdowns in the red zone. But is it just McCaffrey? Or is it something more? Is there a common denominator to the team's lack of success in the red zone in 2024?
"No, there's never a common denominator," Shanahan said. "It's always a bunch of variables. It depends on the plays, stuff like that. Sometimes you run it twice, and if you run it twice, you better do good on 3rd down. If you throw it, and you don't get it in, then you better start being more confident in the run game. So it's been here and there. Whatever it is, I think we're ranked 17th this year, which is average, which is definitely not good enough. I think we have been one, two out of the last three years. We have done a good job down there."
But the 49ers have not scored enough red zone touchdowns in these early weeks. Although they scored 30 on the New England Patriots last week, they should have scored a lot more. If some of last Sunday's red zone trips were touchdowns, the 49ers may have scored over 40.
"Christian is one of the best red zone threats there is in the league just because of coverages and stuff, and how everything gets smaller," Shanahan added. "And to have that last guy on a checkdown, that brings two people away. Either he scores or he makes it very clean for other people. But we just haven't made our opportunities."
The 49ers still do not know when they will get the reigning NFL Offensive Player of the Year back from his Achilles injury, but they won't rush McCaffrey back. Matt Barrows, of The Athletic, was a guest on 95.7 The Game, and told hosts, Willard and Dibbs, "They are ramping up his rehab, but this ramp is a very low grade. They're not going to rush him back...It's very cautious...Maybe two weeks from now they'll do more and really start to test it."
In the meantime, the 49ers offense has to find a way to be better inside the 20-yard line. Shanahan has put his team in a position to convert those trips into touchdowns, and QB Brock Purdy has been playing extremely well. Now McCaffrey's other teammates must pick up the slack and start scoring more touchdowns.
Watch Papa's full interview with Shanahan:
- Marc Adams
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Written by:Speaker. Writer. Covering the San Francisco 49ers. Host of the 49ers Camelot show.
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