49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan on Monday provided some interesting insight into how he evaluates the team’s quarterbacks in practice.
The stats tracked by reporters provide some insight into how the players performed, although they also require context. Shanahan in his press conference though explained why he doesn’t necessarily keep track of stats in practice. He didn’t even know that QB Sam Darnold hadn’t thrown an interception yet.
“Yeah, I am with every quarterback and he’s done a good job of that, but it’s something that we don’t really look at it that way,” Shanahan said. “I would not have known that. We watch each play how it is, you see how he performs, how consistent he is, how much he can stack up with the type of throws he makes. Whether he is accurate, whether he gets to the right spot. Can he get it off with the pass rush? Half these aren’t even getting off because we’re not sacking guys out there. So you evaluate all that stuff and that’s why camp’s a long time. You get a real good feel as it goes and you don’t try to just put too much into that stuff each day.”
There’s surely also an aspect of the receivers running the right routes and getting to the right places.
This is why living and dying on every practice is tough. Decisions are made by the coaching staff based on a full body of work that goes well beyond whatever the numbers say.
