SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The Niners want to play bully ball this season.
The Niners running backs are big — all three that will suit up for Sunday’s Week 2 game against the Seahawks weigh more than 215 pounds. Their tight ends pack a punch — especially when George Kittle is in the lineup. It’s demanded that Niners wide receivers are committed blockers in the run game. They’re also runners of the football.
And this season, they have a quarterback, Trey Lance, who can bulldoze over defenders at 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds.
“There’s certainly been an evolution in us as an organization and what we covet,” 49ers general manager John Lynch said earlier this month. “You grab a player like a Deebo Samuel, and you see the physicality that just wears on people.
“It’s not all about scheme. At some point, you got to impose your will on people.”
But how does head coach and offensive play-caller Kyle Shanahan balance that imposition with the need to keep the team’s top players — specifically Samuel and Lance — healthy and available for the full 17-game season?
Sunday’s season opener against the Bears in a tributary of Lake Michigan was an inauspicious start in many ways for the Niners, not the least of which is that both Samuel and Lance took plenty of big hits in the contest.
Samuel — new contract in tow — reprised his “wide back” role from 2021 in Chicago, as he frequently lined up in the backfield with Lance and carried the ball eight times for 52 yards. All but two of his touches came from handoffs — it doesn’t seem like he will have any problems hitting the requirements for that hotly contested running back bonus in that new deal.
Lance, meanwhile, had eight designed runs against the Bears, tied for the most of any quarterback in the NFL in Week 1.
For a team that has blamed injuries for two of the last four seasons going up in flames, it’s fair to wonder if Sunday’s game was a sign of what’s to come in 2022.
Are these two players so physically superior that they can survive playing this style for the next five months?
Common sense says if the Niners try do that with Lance and Samuel week in, week out, there probably won’t be a week in, week out for the Niners’ duo this season.
At the same time, this isn’t professional two-hand touch.
When I asked Shanahan about striking that balance on Wednesday, he was of two different minds for the two players:
“Deebo is a physical runner, that’s how he runs, whether he is running it or we’re throwing it to him, I feel it’s the same ending. So that’s what you always hope, and that’s what you want with, to me, every single player that gets the ball except for a quarterback,” Shanahan said.
“Quarterbacks, you have to pick and choose. Sliding is the best deal, but sometimes there’s ways to go down forward without taking the hits, and I think Trey’s done a pretty good job of that. Did a lot better in this game too.”
“He’s got to play football still, too.”
For what it’s worth, Lance claims to have slid only slide once in his football career, and that was in the Niners’ first preseason game this summer.
Lance had been the best athlete on the field in every game he had ever played in up until last season. Growing up in small-town Minnesota and playing at a second-tier college program allows that to happen.
The 22-year-old quarterback — who had two injuries last season — still appears to default to tucking and running the ball when he feels pressure in the pocket. Lance had eight scrambles Sunday to go with his eight designed runs.
In high school, a Lance run would be a touchdown. In college, it’d be a big gain. In the NFL, it’s a positive-impact play that typically ends with an impact from a defender.
Is that still a net positive?
Lance is finding out the hard way that he’s just one of 22 great athletes on the field in the NFL — he’ll have to pick and choose his spots to run better.
“I’m not bigger, faster, and stronger than pretty much everyone else,” Lance said when I asked him about the biggest difference between when he was at North Dakota State and the Niners. “Guys catch up a lot quicker, space is filled, guys close a lot faster… Guys coming downhill, guys don’t hesitate… I have to learn to protect myself, just being in a different situation knowing how important it is for me to stay healthy.”
But cautiousness has never played well in the NFL. As Lance said, defenders aren’t hesitating as they try to separate his head from his chest — he can’t hesitate, either.
And if he can’t go around defenders, he has the size and temperament go through them.
“For the most part, when I’m running between the tackles or running on third down, I’m not ever going to slide… and just give up on the play and send our defense on the field,” Lance said.
Samuel being motioned into the backfield gives the 49ers a clear schematic advantage — it scrambles defensive assignments. It’s also the most direct route of putting the ball in Samuel’s hands, which must be a priority in the Niners’ offense.
Meanwhile, Lance’s ability to run gives the Niners’ offense a dynamic that it has lacked under Shanahan — a dynamic that could take it to the next level.
The Niners believe they have the kind of roster that can win the Super Bowl. Concern about long-term sustainability, specifically with Samuel and Lance, cannot be a concern. The Niners will deal with four years from now in four years. This team’s window to win that elusive sixth Super Bowl — tying the Patriots and Steelers for the NFL record — is right now.
But that Super Bowl will be played in February. Can Samuel and Lance survive — and thrive — with this style?
Samuel has missed more than a third of the Niners’ games in the first three seasons of his career. Lance picked up two injuries last year as a backup quarterback.
Football might not be all about schematics, but this scheme is risky business.
We’ll find out in due time if the reward is worth the risk.
