The 49ers are heading into Thursday night’s season opener in Australia against the Rams with a familiar opponent and a familiar problem: some of the same strengths that have defined Kyle Shanahan’s offense still need to be sharpened.
San Francisco split the matchup with Los Angeles last season, winning at SoFi Stadium before the Rams answered with a convincing victory at Levi’s Stadium. The rivalry stays the same, but both teams will look different in 2025 as Shanahan and Sean McVay work in new wrinkles on offense. For the 49ers, that means a few trends are worth watching closely as they look ahead to 2026.
Start with the run game, where the numbers were good but not quite at the standard this offense usually sets. The 49ers finished 16th in the league with a 42.4% success rate on rushing plays, which is not where this group usually lives.
Christian McCaffrey was still a force, and his role in the passing game remained massive - he carried a 23.5% target rate, higher than CeeDee Lamb, Ladd McConkey and Michael Pittman. But the ground game did not consistently produce the kind of efficiency San Francisco expects.
McCaffrey ranked 37th in the NFL in EPA/rush, and his 0.97 average yards before contact ranked 46th. On outside zone runs, that yards-before-contact figure dropped to 0.63.
Even with those issues, the 49ers still finished eighth in EPA/play thanks to the fifth-best EPA/pass in the league at 0.12. That passing efficiency is the engine.
If the run game climbs back up, the offense can hum all year.
Another piece that figures to stick around is San Francisco’s heavy use of 21 personnel. No team used it more than the 49ers, who logged a league-high 393 snaps from 21 personnel, a 36.32% rate.
The Baltimore Ravens were the only team close enough to matter, and even they trailed San Francisco’s total production from the grouping. The 49ers posted 29.99 EPA out of 21 personnel, tops in the league, while the Ravens were second at 28.77 EPA.
That usage makes sense with Kyle Juszczyk on the roster. The veteran fullback helps the 49ers identify coverages and opens running lanes as a blocker, and that role is not going away anytime soon.
Even so, the results on the ground from 21 personnel were only so-so. San Francisco ranked 10th with an -0.02 EPA/rush from that set, but the passing side carried the load with a 0.18 EPA/pass.
In a league leaning lighter by the year, the 49ers’ McCaffrey-and-Juice package still has plenty of life.
The biggest area where San Francisco simply has to be better is turnover prevention. 49ers quarterbacks finished 27th with a 2.79% interception rate. The Seattle Seahawks were actually higher at 3.12%, but the broader point remains: putting the ball in danger is a bad way to live, especially when the defense is expected to carry more weight. The 49ers’ defense should improve from last season, if only because it would be hard to be worse in some of the metrics that mattered.
Brock Purdy’s aggressiveness is part of what makes the offense dangerous, and nobody is asking him to play timid. But the next step is clear: keep the calculated risks, cut down the interceptions, and avoid the turnovers that put too much stress on the rest of the team.
In Other News...
Grant Cohn Is Somehow Becoming Part Of The 49ers Opener Story
The 49ers trip to Australia has already produced plenty of attention around the season opener against the Rams, but one of the more unusual side stories has been the visibility of Grant Cohn. The veteran 49ers beat writer has drawn notice there not just for his reporting, but for the way his social media posts have mixed football coverage with snapshots of local food and everyday cultural stops, giving followers a different window into the trip.
Cohn has long been a familiar and sometimes polarizing presence around the team because of his critical style and his public run-ins with players, and that reputation seems to travel with him as much as the 49ers do. In a week built around an international opener, it is a reminder that the conversation around the team can extend well beyond the field, especially when the media coverage itself becomes part of the storyline. [Read more 🡒]
Deebo Samuels New Role Puts 49ers Rookie In Week 1 Spotlight
DeZhaun Stribling spent the preseason climbing the 49ers depth chart, and now the rookie wide receiver is positioned for a meaningful Week 1 opportunity. San Franciscos offense is already adjusting to injuries and shifting receiver roles, and the updated depth chart points to a lineup that could lean on Stribling as a starter alongside Mike Evans against the Los Angeles Rams.
One of the more telling changes is Deebo Samuel listed as the primary kick returner, a sign his workload could tilt away from the offensive centerpiece role he has often held. For a young receiver like Stribling, that kind of reshuffling matters - it opens a clearer path to snaps, targets and a fast start in a game where the 49ers are trying to sort out their passing game on the fly. [Read more 🡒]
49ers Just Caught A Huge Week 1 Break Against The Rams
The 49ers were getting ready for the usual Aaron Donald problem before Week 1 took a turn in their favor. Donald will not travel with the Rams to Australia and will miss the opener against San Francisco, a notable shift for a team that had spent its preparation assuming the lines most disruptive presence would be there.
Kyle Shanahan acknowledged the change and the ripple effect it has on the 49ers game plan, since any matchup with Los Angeles typically starts with Donalds location and how to survive it. Now San Francisco gets a rare opening against the Rams without him, which alters both the protection challenges and the way the 49ers can approach the first game of the season. [Read more 🡒]