49ers’ George Kittle reveals one of Kyle Shanahan’s secrets to scheming up big plays

Kyle Shanahan is generally considered one of the best offensive minds in the NFL. His designs have helped the 49ers reach the NFC Championship game three times in the last four years. This week, star tight end George Kittle revealed one of the head coach’s secrets to orchestrating big plays, and it might come as a surprise to those who celebrate Shanahan’s ground game.

“Kyle has this thing where, if he wants to set up a play-action or a bootleg-type pass, sometimes he’ll just call a run play that he knows is not gonna work,” Kittle told the “Slow News Day” podcast. “Like, we’re running a run play multiple times and it’s averaging 2 yards a carry, 2 yards a carry, 2 yards a carry. And then we throw a play-action behind it, and Deebo [Samuel] goes 75 yards. … And the whole thing is set up, because it’s the exact same motion, the exact same alignment, it looks the exact same.”

Kittle declined to classify the strategy as “wasting plays,” but it’s essentially the approach. That doesn’t mean Shanahan always believes run calls are merely setups for greater pass plays. But it confirms that “establishing the run” can sometimes really just be a means of establishing the pass. At the end of the day, Kittle explained, it’s all about creating holes in the defense.

“Kyle Shanahan is, like, ‘If I can get my skill players involved with field — with space — in front of them, we’re all (gonna be) running for days,'” the Pro Bowl tight end said. “He can scheme us up open.”