49ers still learning coach Kyle Shanahan’s complex offense

SANTA CLARA - 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan often explains how complex his offense is.

When explaining why his offense has struggled this season, Shanahan reminds people the Falcons offense struggled during his first season in Atlanta, then took off during Year 2.

And when asked why he kept quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo on the bench for a month after the 49ers acquired him in a trade, Shanahan said his complex offense takes a long time to learn and Garoppolo wouldn’t be fully comfortable with it until next season. If Shanahan had simplified the offense for Garoppolo and played him sooner, the 49ers might have won another game or two.

Shanahan discussed the complexity of his offense Friday during a press conference in the 49ers auditorium. Although he prefers to describe it as detailed instead of complex, his players consider it complex.

“It’s definitely a complex offense,” said wide receiver Louis Murphy.

“Yeah, there are a lot of moving parts,” said fullback Kyle Juszczyk.

“It’s Week 14 - you’re just now asking that?” said center Daniel Kilgore with a laugh.

“We have high expectations and a high demand of players,” Shanahan said. “We want things done as good as you can do it - depths of routes, precisions of routes, how you block, techniques you use, where you go with the ball. If you can attack a defense, attack their weakness in a number of different ways, sometimes you can help players get in a more advantageous position than they would just lining up and going against someone who might be better than them.”

What specifically makes Shanahan’s offense so complex?

“It’s the wording,” said Garoppolo. “It’s different than most offenses.”

“It’s a wordier offense than most,” said rookie quarterback C.J. Beathard.

“A formation with motion can get up to eight words,” said fullback Kyle Juszczyk. “And then you’ve got to get the protection. And then you’ve got to get the routes. And then you’ve got to give the alternate play. It can get pretty lengthy.

“There’s a million formations. There’s a motion on almost every single play. Multiple protections. Multiple plays called in the huddle at once. We have man-zone reads, where you have a man play (a play to attack man-to-man coverage) and a zone play (a play to attack zone coverage). A lot of different run schemes. We have gap, we have wide zone, inside zone, mid zone. There’s not a printed-out list, like, OK, there are 363 plays. It could be infinite with the amount of different motions you put on it.”

“The complexities come from all 11 players having to be exactly on it,” said left tackle Joe Staley, “knowing exactly what we’re trying to accomplish as far as schematics go. Just those details, they’re different than most offenses.”

“The easiest way to describe it,” said rookie tight end George Kittle, “would be for every play that we have, we run the same play out of a different formation with everybody at different spots in as many ways as possible. So, you’ve got to know what every single person does on every single play because you might be running it the very next play out of a totally different formation.”

Until 2011, it was easier to install complex offenses like Shanahan is installing with the 49ers.

The Collective Bargaining Agreement changed everything. Most teams have scaled back on number of plays and complexity.

The offseason program is now nine weeks - five weeks shorter than it was before 2011. Players can’t meet with coaches during the offseason outside of those nine weeks. Training camps can’t feature two-a-day practices, so practice time is cut in half. And during the regular season, teams can’t have more than 14 padded practices.

These changes may explain why Shanahan was more successful before the current CBA. From 2008 to 2010, his offenses ranked top 20 in points scored two of three seasons. Since 2011, his offenses have ranked top 20 in points scored two of seven seasons.

Shanahan’s defensive coordinator, Robert Saleh, stresses simple instead of complex. Saleh is proud of his simple defense.

What are the virtues of simplicity?

“Speed,” Saleh said. “When you get to a point where you can play with great anticipation, you can play much faster than the people around you.” In other words, Saleh’s players are playing instead of thinking.

Does simplicity make the CBA’s restrictions on practice time and meeting time less of an issue for you?

“It does,” Saleh said. “We can get to the nuts and bolts and teach football, rather than scheme.”

Shanahan’s complex offense kept Garoppolo off the field for a month, as opposed to Jacoby Brissett, who started a game for the Indianapolis Colts two weeks after they traded for him. Should Shanahan have simplified things so Garoppolo could play sooner?

“I don’t compare ourselves at all to other teams. Like I said from beginning, it wasn’t just about Jimmy. It was about our whole team, our organization. We thought that was best for our organization, and still feel very confident in what we did. We will continue to always make decisions that we think is best for our organization.”