The San Francisco 49ers offense ranked last in red-zone efficiency last year (41.18 percent) when it comes to converting drives into touchdowns. Red-zone drills highlighted Thursday's training camp practice. It's an area that has to improve for the 49ers to be successful this season.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan joined KNBR on Thursday and was asked what the team needs to do to improve in the red zone — other than the healthy return of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. He went on to rattle off a lengthy list of things that need to happen for the 49ers offense to more frequently punch the football into the end zone.

"We need to run the ball better," Shanahan explained to Mark Willard and Tom Tolbert. "We need to beat man-to-man coverage better. We need to make better decisions at quarterback. We need to give him more opportunities, some easy freebies, as you'd say as coaches, where guys are just wide open, and just anyone can make the play.

"When you get down there, it gets tougher. It gets a lot tougher, and sometimes you've got to force your will on people. I thought we did a decent job, especially earlier in the year, running the ball. I thought we faded away towards the end of the year.


"I think getting our backs healthier, our O-line getting better, the five of them again. That will always help. Get Jimmy back. And I think (quarterbacks) Nick (Mullens) and C.J. (Beathard), they stepped it up and did some good things last year. I think they'll be better this year, also. Adding some of these receivers will help. I expect (tight end George) Kittle to come back better next year, too.

"It would be hard not to be better in the red zone because I don't think we did a very good job last year. But it's something we know we've got to get better at; not just getting points but getting touchdowns."

You can listen to the entire conversation with Shanahan below.


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