Taking a closer look at the offensive and defensive schemes of the Detroit Lions Week 17 opponent: The San Francisco 49ers.
The Detroit Lions (13-2) will take on the San Francisco 49ers (6-9) in Week 17 on “Monday Night Football.” The Lions are plenty familiar with the 49ers coaching scheme, having faced them in last year’s NFC Championship game, though there have been some changes to the staff.
“They find your weaknesses and they exploit them in numerous ways, particularly in the run game, but then the play-pass off of that,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said of San Francisco’s scheme. “And so, they kind of have a core that they run, core scheme, but then inside of those, they’re able to adjust.”
Let’s take a look at the 49ers’ coaching staff and how their offensive and defensive schemes operate.
49ers head coach: Kyle Shanahan
Son of legendary coach Mike Shanahan, Kyle has adopted and updated many of his dad’s offensive philosophies over the years. As a result, he has built an impressive coaching tree and features one of the most explosive offensive schemes in the NFL.
Shanahan entered the NFL with the Buccaneers in 2004 (under Jon Gruden), then spent two seasons as a position coach in Houston (under Gary Kubiak), before being named offensive coordinator in 2008-9. He would join his dad in Washington, working as his OC from 2010-13, then spent a year as the Browns OC, before landing with the Falcons in 2015. In 2016, he orchestrated an offense that propelled the Falcons to the Super Bowl and accepted the 49ers head coaching position in 2017.
Over his career, he’s worked alongside several high-profile coaches in the league, like Sean McVay (head coach Rams) and Matt LaFleur (head coach Packers ), as well as mentoring several others, including Mike McDaniel (head coach Dolphins ), DeMeco Ryans (head coach Texans ), Robert Saleh (former head coach Jets), Mike LaFleur (OC Rams), Adam Stenavich (OC Packers), Jeff Hafley (DC Packers), and Bobby Slowik (OC Texans).
West Coast offensive scheme
On offense, Shanahan also acts as the de facto offensive coordinator, organizing the game plan and calling play on game day. Last year, San Francisco had co-offensive coordinators Chris Foerster and Klint Kubiak, but this offseason, Kubiak departed for the Saints OC job, and Foerster took on a run game coordinator role, leaving the team with no official offensive coordinator in title.
Like most West Coast offenses, Shanahan’s scheme uses pre-snap motion and shifts to draw the defense’s attention and expose coverage. Once the play is underway, quarterback (Brock Purdy) rollouts and heavy outside zone rushing concepts are utilized to create misdirection. Play-action is another typical staple, but the 49ers have not relied on it as much in 2024, just 19% of the time (25th most in the NFL).
The 49ers face a stacked box 29.4% of the time, the most of any team in the league, but their inability to freeze defenses has led to more opponent blitzes (31.1%, 10th highest rate) and pressure rates (37.5%, ninth highest rate).
Another unique trait of San Francisco’s offense is, because of their skill players (like tight end George Kittle, wide receiver DeeBo Samuel, and fullback Kyle Juszczyk), they deploy an unusual balance of personnel groupings. While 11 personnel (1 running back, 1 tight end, 3 wide receivers) is still the most commonly used (46.6% of the time), they also incorporate higher-than-normal levels of 21 personnel (35.9%, most in the NFL).
Injuries have also played a factor in the 49ers offense having to adapt their scheme. They lost their top running back, Christian McCaffrey, for the season, as well as his replacement Jordan Mason, and the third man up, rookie Isaac Guerendo is dealing with a foot and hamstring injury and missed last week. They also lost their top pure receiver in Brandon Aiyuk, further taking away options.
Furthermore, their offensive line has been smashed by injury. All-world left tackle Trent Williams was just placed on injured reserve, as was his backup Jaylon Moore, leaving them to turn to Spencer Burford, and he has already missed practice this week with a calf injury. Additionally, starting left guard Aaron Banks won’t play for the rest of the season, per Shanahan, his backup Ben Bartch is already on injured reserve, leaving them to once again turn to a third option in Nick Zakelj.
With all the injuries, the 49ers have incurred a litany of pre-snap penalties, had trouble picking up blitzes, have asked Purdy to scramble more, and have needed to rely on yards after the catch (YAC) via quick passes and screens, as opposed to pushing the ball down the field.
As a result, the 49ers’ typically explosive offense is averaging just 22.1 points per game this season (15th most in the NFL). But if you look at their six most recent games—where they’ve lost five—they’re averaging just 16.3 points per game. And in those five losses, that number drops to just 12 points per game.
Defensive coordinator: Nick Sorensen
Sorensen played safety in the NFL from 2001 to 2010 and shifted to coaching in 2013. His first job was with the Seattle Seahawks , working under defensive coordinator Kris Richard during the peak “Legion of Boom” years, and coaching the secondary from 2016-20. After a year in Jacksonville, Sorenson joined Shanahan in San Francisco in 2022 and was named defensive coordinator in 2024.
4-2-5 base defensive scheme
While the 49ers have had four defensive coordinators during Shanahan’s time in San Francisco, the scheme has held very consistent, leading many to refer to it as Shnahan’s defensive scheme—even though its roots are heavily influenced by the Gus Bradley/Dan Quinn/Richard “Legion of Boom” defenses. Shanahan practiced against this style of defense during the Falcons’ Super Bowl run (Quinn was the head coach), and he hired Saleh to install it with the 49ers partially because he was mentored by Bradley. Richard learned under both Quinn and Bradley, and he helped mold Sorenson, which is why he’s a solid fit to lead the 49ers’ defense.
The 49ers deploy a 1-gapping four-man front with two consistent off-the-ball linebackers—the occasional third in base formations—and operate out a subpackage 76% of the time, preferring to keep three corners on the field in nickel (75%) sets.
While the defensive line attacks, the back-seven operates primarily in zone coverage (71% of the time), allowing teams to complete short throws, keeping the play in front of them, and executing their tackles. They deploy mostly Cover-3 (35% of the time) and Cover-4 (20%), and when they shift to man coverage, it’s almost exclusively in single-high looks (22%). That means, roughly 57% of the time, they operate with a single-high safety, which is a look the Lions offense has seen a lot of in recent games.
While most bend-don’t-break defenses shed yardage, the 49ers’ coverage skills and tackling efficiency help them limit yards against. This shows up both in total yards gained per game (304.3, second best), passing yards against (183.3, third best), and YAC allowed (1654, seventh best) and YAC allowed over expectations (108, best in the NFL).
Despite the low yardage, they still allow teams to score, on average, 23.3 points per game (24.5 over the last six games), primarily because of their red zone defense. Entering this game, opponents are scoring touchdowns when entering the red zone 65.3% of the time (29th).
They’ve also been particularly vulnerable against the run, ranking 26th in run defense EPA and 24th in DVOA run defense. Because the scheme calls for their back-seven to focus on getting deeper into coverage, they only stack the box 20% of the time (19th most) and only blitz 17.8% of the time (30th), leaving them vulnerable if runners get past contact. As a result, they’re allowing 3.04 yards after contact (19th most), and are particularly vulnerable against speedier backs. For example, last week, Miami’s Devon Achane ran the ball 17 times for 120 yards and a touchdown, while adding six catches for 70 yards receiving.
Hello, Jahmyr Gibbs.