San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan has earned significant praise during his six-year tenure with the 49ers, despite failing to win a Super Bowl and boasting a 52-46 record during his career.
Why? Well, he's seen as one of, if not the best play-callers in the NFL, allowing his offenses to flourish, despite fielding average quarterback play throughout his tenure.
While many have tried to take away from Shanahan as a head coach, the analytics support him and his playcalling efforts, as a recent study named him as the No. 1 play-caller in the NFL in regards to formation efficiency and market expectations over the last six years.
🚨Offensive Play Caller Update🚨
This PCA model looks at how efficient play callers have been in various personnel packages and how often they've passed the ball in those packages.
It also considers market predictions for points scored and points scored over expectation. pic.twitter.com/WVXJOKAe6b
— Steven Patton (@PattonAnalytics) June 29, 2023
Earlier this month, tight end George Kittle gave some insight into how Shanahan schemes certain play-action passes, electing to deliberately call a play that won't work in order to set up the explosive opportunity.
George Kittle breaks down the secret to Kyle Shanahan's explosive plays: "If he wants to set up a play action pass or bootleg, he will call a run play that he knows isn't going to work…" George is so good at talking about this. pic.twitter.com/LIInE8ZKK8
— Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) June 14, 2023
"We played Seattle in the playoffs this year and Kyle has this thing where if he wants to set up a play action or a bootleg type, we'll sometimes call a run play that he knows is not going to work," Kittle explained. "We're running a run play multiple times, and it's averaging like two yards a carry, two yards a carry, two yards a carry, and we threw a play-action behind it and Deebo goes for like 75 yards in Seattle.
"The whole thing is set up because it's the exact same motion, it's the exact same alignment, it's the exact same. And all of a sudden, Deebo's running a shallow, I'm faking like I'm the defensive end, linebacker thinks it's power, he steps up four yards and Deebo's uncovered in the flat running for a touchdown."
Shanahan has built his offense around a plethora of talented skill-position players that allow him to get the most out of his offensive scheme, which in return has allowed him to be the most-efficient play-caller during his time in San Francisco.