49ers Notebook: Kyle Shanahan takes an unexpected break from play calling; Malik Mustapha draws rave reviews for big hit; Positive performance for quarterbacks

The first San Francisco 49ers preseason game of 2024 is in the books, with the 49ers falling 17-13 on the road against the Tennessee Titans in a game where most of the team's starters did not play.

Following the game, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke to reporters about what he saw Saturday night, and why he gave a particularly interesting opportunity to one of his assistant coaches. Other topics of conversation Saturday included the performance of the team's quarterbacks during the game, as well as some thoughts on rookie safety Malik Mustapha, who made one of the game's biggest plays on defense. We have a rundown of those items of interest in this edition of 49ers Notebook.

A night off from playcalling

Saturday's game against the Titans was a chance for a number of 49ers backup players to get extended playing time... and for an assistant coach to get an unprecedented opportunity to take over the play calling on offense.

49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan let offensive passing game specialist Klay Kubiak call plays on Saturday night, which was a particularly unexpected development given the fact Shanahan had previously not let anyone else call the plays at any point during his time with the team.

"I have a lot of confidence in Klay, but it was one of the more boring things for me personally," Shanahan said. "That was like my first game in 16 years not calling plays."

Not surprisingly, Shanahan was at kind of a loss when it came to how he'd occupy his time on the sidelines during the game.

"I didn't really know what to do with my hands," Shanahan said. "I got to throw a red flag. I was excited about that. Called a timeout, I think a couple of them, but it is a little different."

What made Shanahan decide to put Kubiak in the playcalling spotlight? It was simply a matter of giving a deserving coach an opportunity.

"I just wanted to give Klay a chance to do it," Shanahan said of Kubiak, who has been with the 49ers in different roles since 2021. "It's not too big of a deal and he's earned it and he's been more than ready to do it and does a lot in practice and wanted to give him the opportunity tonight."

49ers backup quarterback Brandon Allen played the first half of the game and gave Kubiak a thumbs-up for his playcalling decisions.

"It was fun to have Klay calling the plays," Allen said, via David Lombardi of the Athletic. "I thought he did a great job. He was calling them up in the box. I thought every time a play came in I had a lot of confidence in what he was calling. I thought most of it was going to work."

Shanahan expects to be back in his playcalling role for next Sunday's preseason game against the New Orleans Saints.

Backup QBs in action

With Brock Purdy among the starters to not play on Saturday, Allen and Joshua Dobbs had the opportunity to make their case as they compete for the No. 2 quarterback spot. Allen finished his half of play with 98 yards on 7-of-13 passing while leading the 49ers on a touchdown drive to open the game, while Dobbs finished 14-of-20 with 146 yards, a rushing touchdown and one interception. Dobbs had a chance to lead the 49ers to a come-from-behind win on a last-minute drive but fell short in the end.

"I thought they did a good job. I thought Brandon, especially his first drive, I was happy with the whole offense there," Shanahan said. "I think we had some penalties and stuff, got us in some bad situations, but he overcame a few with some big throws on third down. I thought Josh came in and gave us a chance to win and he made some real good throws there at the end, just came up a little bit short, but I thought both of them made some plays."

Dobbs saw plenty of action on Sundays last season as a temporary starter for the Arizona Cardinals and Minnesota Vikings, but for Allen, Saturday's game was the first playing time he's had in a while after spending 2023 on the sidelines behind Purdy and Sam Darnold.

"It's been a while since I've gotten hit, so it was good to get hit again," Allen said after the game. "Obviously in the preseason there's good and there's bad, there's stuff to get better from. I thought overall there's a lot of stuff to throw on tape we can watch and learn from."

Making an impression

Mustapha, the 49ers' fourth-round pick out of Wake Forest, has been catching eyes since joining the team back in May. On Saturday, he had a chance to show what he can do in an NFL game setting for the first time and delivered with an impressive hit on Titans running back Hassan Haskins that forced a turnover on downs and stopped a potential scoring drive.

"That was awesome," Shanahan said. "I mean, it was huge, right when he cut it back and Mustapha coming from the middle there and couldn't hesitate. We knew he was a hitter, so we're excited to see him today hit someone else besides our own guys in practice."

For Mustapha, it felt good just to be able to make a hit again in addition to making a fourth down stop.

"It's been a long time," Mustapha said Saturday. "I haven't hit anybody since November of last year. In practice you obviously can't hit your guys, so I was fired up getting that one big hit today, and I was glad I was able to make a big play on that as well."

Chances are Mustapha will continue to make an impact for the 49ers once games start to count. He's certainly made an impression on his teammates, among them running back Jordan Mason and fullback Kyle Juszczyk.

"I love seeing him. I just love seeing him out there," Mason said Saturday. "Today actually Juice came up to me and was like 'Yeah, I like him. I like him.' I was just like, 'Where'd he come from?' because he'd always been standing out, but today I was like, 'Where'd he come from?' Wake Forest... He's gonna be something."

Next up

Expect things to pick up a bit for the 49ers this week when they join the Saints for joint practices at UC-Irvine on August 15 before their game on Sunday. The practices will give each team a respite from practicing against their teammates, but the 49ers could face a bit of a dilemma when it comes to injuries.

"t's awesome to get a chance to scrimmage versus people. You know, we're a little banged up, so we got to figure out how we can pull that off and stuff like that," Shanahan said. "...Last week, we had like 23 guys out of practice the last time that we practiced, so hopefully we can get more of those guys back so we can have a decent scrimmage."