The 49ers have been able to get away with some tumult at quarterback over the last couple of seasons thanks in large part to one of the NFL’s top pass-catching groups. In a Pro Football Focus ranking of the league’s receiving corps, San Francisco landed at No. 4 thanks to both their depth and diversity.
Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk and Jauan Jennings would be enough to put the 49ers into the mix as a top-five receiving corps, but PFF included the team’s other pass-catching weapons as well. Tight end George Kittle and running back Christian McCaffrey put the group firmly into the NFL’s elite.
Via PFF’s Trevor Sikkema:
There are so many receiving weapons to choose from in the Niners offense. They have Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk at the receiver positions, George Kittle at tight end and now Christian McCaffrey out of the backfield. From Week 7 on — when they acquired McCaffrey — the 49ers earned the highest team receiving grade in the league at 87.3.
There’s a chance this group of playmakers leads head coach Kyle Shanahan to become more reliant on the passing game than he’s been the last few years. Since 2018 they’ve finished 20th, 29th, 16th, 29th and 26th in pass attempts. The years where the finished in the top 20 were both years they finished below .500 and out of the playoffs. The 2023 season may be the first time we see San Francisco push into the top 20 in pass attempts while still holding a winning record.
That’s not to say they’re going to become a team that drops back 700-plus times like the Buccaneers and Chargers both did last season. It’s also unlikely they’ll start pushing the ball downfield at all costs. With this group of pass catchers though it’s easy to see Shanahan utilizing short throws as an extension of the run game more often than he has in the past.
Defenses are learning to adjust in more effective ways to the Shanahan offense with so many coaches around the league utilizing variations of it. That will more adapting from the 49ers’ head coach, and that could mean more passing from an offense that has the weapons to make it successful.
