In the 49ers’ new post-Kaepernick era, fans are desperate for an improvement to an offense that lacked just about everything last season.
New head coach Kyle Shanahan joined Rich Eisen on his podcast Friday and revealed who he saw at the heart of the Niners’ 2017 offense. The answer: former Chicago Bear and new signee Brian Hoyer.
“Right now Brian Hoyer’s going to be at the controls,” Shanahan said. “I’m really excited about Brian. Brian’s looked good here in phase one and phase two of the offseason. He’s putting in a lot of work. I got to work with Brian for one year when we were at Cleveland together – he can execute an entire offense, he can read a defense, he can hang in the pocket.
“He’s a guy who’s tough, he doesn’t watch the rush. He distributes the ball to whoever should get the ball based on the coverage and he allows guys to makes plays. I’d like to run a real similar offense to what we did in Atlanta with Brian and with the rest of our guys.”
In his 2016 season with Chicago, Hoyer completed 134 of his 200 pass attempts for 1,445 yards and six touchdowns over six games. His most prominent year came in 2014 for the Browns with Shanahan, where he played 14 games and completed 242 of his 438 pass attempts. He threw for 3,326 yards that season, including 12 touchdowns, but also surrendered 13 interceptions.
The Niners picked up Hoyer on a two-year contract worth up to $12 million this past March.