The 49ers’ win over the Chargers on Sunday night was supposed to be a coming out party for an offense that, for the first time, would have a fully-integrated Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, George Kittle, Brandon Aiyuk and Elijah Mitchell. Instead it was a choppy affair where San Francisco went two-for-five in the red zone and managed only 22 points.
One of the things that stood out after the game was the distribution of touches for the 49ers’ offensive weapons. Of the things from Sunday’s game to worry about moving forward, touches for offensive weapons shouldn’t be one of them. At least not yet.
On Sunday night it was Mitchell leading the way with 19 touches, followed by his fellow running back McCaffrey with 18. Aiyuk was the leading receiver with six receptions. There was nothing necessarily out of the ordinary with those numbers. What stands out are the touches for Kittle and Samuel.
Kittle had one catch on two targets. Samuel had six touches (four carries, two receptions) for 51 yards.
It’s true that both Kittle and Samuel are among the 49ers’ top playmakers, but what we saw Sunday was a product of the offense San Francisco’s front office has constructed. They’re loaded with talent at the skill positions, which means not every player is going to get theirs game in and game out.
Tying the team’s less-than-stellar 22 points to the lack of touches for the stars they used to lean on so heavily is logical. The issue with that is they still went to the red zone five times, and a dropped pass by Aiyuk left a TD on the field. So did a slip by Mitchell near the goal line. There were problems that led more directly to their point total.
It should be said that if the lack of Kittle and Samuel continues while the 49ers’ offense struggles to punch the ball into the end zone, then this will absolutely be a conversation worth having.
After one game though, it’s a lot of nothing.
There will be games where Kittle gets more touches while Aiyuk’s target numbers dip, or the carries for McCaffrey and Mitchell become more sparse. Samuel will likely be more efficient when he’s targeted six-plus times in the future.
For now the 49ers are finding their stride offensively, and they looked a little better Sunday night. Head coach Kyle Shanahan knows the value of getting playmakers involved. The issue now is there are only so many touches to go around in a given game.
Don’t expect the lack of Kittle and Samuel to last forever. There could be more games where they’re not huge factors, to be sure, but they’re simply too good and too important to be left out of the offense for any prolonged period of time.
