The San Francisco 49ers’ last season in the NFL was undoubtedly one of their weakest in years. Steve Young, one of the most successful players in the franchise’s history, knows where one of the key factors for the team’s potential turnaround could have been. With Kyle Shanahan being the target of his comments, the former QB made it clear that Brock Purdy’s talent could have been better utilized in a more intelligent way.
In a recent appearance on 95.7 The Game with Mark Willard and Dan Dibley, the three-time Super Bowl champion with San Francisco didn’t hide his disappointment after the team’s lackluster season. He pointed out that the head coach could have better utilized Purdy, particularly outside the pocket.
“I said during the season a couple of times, I think (Kyle Shanahan) should call RPOs for Brock,” Young said. ’We should put him on the run out of the huddle where he’s going to carry it. The threat that he needs to bring — look, we understand the processing power, but the game today is there are free first downs with your legs, free touchdowns, especially in the fourth quarter.”
Not only that, but Young also dared to compare Purdy’s talent to one of the biggest revelations of this NFL season, Jayden Daniels. “(Purdy) can do 80 percent of what Jayden Daniels can do with his legs.”
“You have to call plays for it. You have to threaten the line of scrimmage. If you’re going to go to the Super Bowl, into the future you have to have a quarterback that’s going to threaten the line of scrimmage every time they have the ball in their hands. These playoffs reminded me of that truth again. I think Brock can do that. It puts him at risk more because the ball is in the hands at the end of the play more often. That’s risky, but I think it’s got to happen.”
Shanahan reflects on his influence in Saleh’s arrival
With the main focus on reversing the results from last season, the San Francisco 49ers have, for now, started to strengthen Kyle Shanahan’s staff. Recently, it was confirmed that former Jets head coach Robert Saleh would join as the new defensive coordinator.
Regarding this situation, it was the head coach himself who expressed his desire to have Saleh on his staff, aiming to improve one of the areas that caused the most difficulty for the team last season.
“I do think people adjust to schemes, and I think you have to adjust too depending on your personnel,” Shanahan said. “And I think that was a tougher thing for us this year. Just going into the season, it was a little bit harder than past seasons and some of the injuries we had, I think, made it really tough for Nick.
“And I thought he got better trying to adjust and do different things, but I do think that’s something that definitely, I’m not saying you’ve got to change schemes, but you have to have the ability, the history and the knowledge of how to change some stuff up when you’re in some certain situations. And I think that we do need that more going forward.”
The goal of improving the last season
Far from the expectations set at the start of the season, the San Francisco 49ers comfortably finished in last place in the NFC West. With a negative record of six wins and eleven losses, Shanahan’s team was one of the biggest disappointments of the season.
With the regular season over and no playoff chances, the franchise focused solely on improving from what was done and, moving forward, on surrounding Brock Purdy with the best possible support to help him return to the top as soon as possible.