The San Francisco 49ers went 2-14 last season and their roster this year features 14 rookies.
On paper, the 49ers are one of the youngest, most inexperienced teams in the league, and on Sunday, they’ll suit up and execute the game plan of a first-time NFL head coach.
Growing pains are understandable, even expected for Kyle Shanahan in year one of his six-year contract, yet on Friday morning, Shanahan beamed with confidence.
“I’m as positive and optimistic going into the season as you can be,” Shanahan told Murph & Mac on KNBR. “I love what we’ve done, I love where our team is at. By no means do I think we’ve arrived, but I think we’ve improved and put ourselves in a position to have a chance to win every game. That’s how you want to feel as a coach going in, that’s how you want your team feeling going in. Then you’ve got to go out and play well, you have to see how the ball bounces, you have to take care of the ball and you’ve got to get turnovers. But I think we’ve got ourselves in a position to be in each game and I’d be surprised if we don’t go out there and play well.”
The 37-year-old Shanahan will lead a 53-man roster with 30 new players this season, and for the first time in his career, he’s in charge of overseeing all aspects of the game. Despite building up a reputation as an offensive whiz thanks to nine seasons as an offensive coordinator spread across four franchises, Shanahan must now focus on all three phases of the game.
On Friday, Shanahan sang the praises of first-year defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, who implemented a new 4-3 scheme that changed the foundation of San Francisco’s defensive structure. Shanahan said that his conversations with Saleh have been enlightening, and the pair is ready to put the scheme to the test against a versatile Carolina Panthers’ offense.
“I love Saleh’s scheme because it’s a very sound scheme,” Shanahan said. “We play out of an eight-man front the majority of the time and that’s the best way to stop the run, from that standpoint and then you want to look into your coverages and how sound they are. We have a base foundation of our scheme which originated from the whole Seattle scheme of Cover 3 and everything. But what I love about Saleh, just me as an offensive coach, we’re always trying to attack things and change things and what I like about Saleh is you can talk about those things. He’s not just set in his ways and going to do the same playbook that someone taught him eight years ago.”
With game day approaching, Shanahan also provided updates on a few of his key players, including safety Jimmie Ward and rookie tight end George Kittle, who have both been limited at practice this week.
Ward is expected to play as the single-high safety at the back end of Saleh’s defense, and if he can’t go, either Jaquiski Tartt or rookie Lorenzo Jerome will start in his place.
“He’s limited and we’ll find out, that’s a game-day decision,” Shanahan said.
As for Kittle, Shanahan said he has better odds of playing on Sunday, but the burden could fall on Garrett Celek and Logan Paulsen to shoulder the load at tight end if the fifth round draft pick isn’t ready.
“I’d be surprised if he isn’t (ready,)” Shanahan said. “He’s been ahead of Jimmie and he didn’t have as big of a setback a couple of weeks ago. He’s been out there, he definitely has been limited, we can’t put him out there as much as we want. But he’s been getting better each day and I’d be surprised if he wasn’t ready to go.”