The 49ers have underwhelmed offensively this year. Despite a wealth of offensive assets in Deebo Samuel, George Kittle, Brandon Aiyuk, Kyle Juszcyk, Jauan Jennings, and now Christian McCaffrey, they are 20th in scoring at 20.7 points per game.
Much of their struggle has been in the second half, and being unable to overcome deficits, especially late in games.
Per a statistic from Sunday’s broadcast, they are 1-30 in Shanahan’s tenure when trailing by three or more points entering the fourth quarter.
What’s behind those issues?
Legendary 49ers quarterback Steve Young joined KNBR on Wednesday to dissect the situation and pointed to his belief that Kyle Shanahan does not and will not ever fully trust Jimmy Garoppolo.
He’s stated this before, that he thinks Shanahan can be conservative because he doesn’t have full belief in his quarterback.
“When I say lack of trust between Jimmy and Kyle, what I’m saying is, and I repeat this all the time, Mike [Shanahan] said this to me,” Young said. “I know that [Bills head coach] Sean McDermott has said it to Josh Allen. I know that Patrick Mahomes has heard this because Andy [Reid] told me this, but turning to those guys and saying, ‘I am going to be aggressive for four quarters. You protect me.’ And that’s that trust level. I don’t think we’re there.”
Young believes that lack of trust is largely to account for the team’s struggles coming back from deficits — though most of those games came with the likes of Brian Hoyer, C.J. Beathard and Nick Mullens at quarterback — because it manifests in a lack of aggression.
He thinks this shows up in the 49ers’ tendency to have strong, early, scripted drives versus poor second half performances on offense. San Francisco is 7-30 when trailing at halftime under Shanahan.
“People start to see your game plan. You’ve got to kind of be iterative,” Young said. “And then I think either Kyle has to go all in and say, ‘I’m just going to do it. I’m going to let it rip the way I want to and take it where it comes,’ or, ‘I’m going to continue to manage through the second halves.’
“And that would speak to why we’re not coming back in the fourth quarter and all of that.”
Young has long expressed admiration and respect for both Shanahan and Garoppolo, but believes the two have a disconnect that’s been heightened by the team’s open desire to trade Garoppolo this offseason.
Listen to the full interview below. You can listen to every KNBR interview on our podcast page at knbr.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Catch Tolbert & Copes weekdays from 2 p.m. – 6 p.m. on KNBR 104.5 / 680 and streaming live on KNBR.com.