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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been one of the hardest teams to figure out this year and it mainly comes down to their dangerous yet inconsistent offense. Stacked with weapons and led by an all-time great quarterback, the Bucs have shown that from week-to-week they can hang 40+ or limp away with only 3 points.
That’s changed for them in the last three weeks, and despite the level of competition they’ve faced, a lot of that can be attributed to a serious shift in their offensive philosophy. The Bucs have abandoned their run first mentality on first down, utilized play-action at a much higher rate, and have better answers in the quick game against pressure packages. As such they’ve averaged 34.7 points per game since their bye week (5th best in that span).
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For all intents and purposes, the offseason has already begun for the 49ers. The team decided today to keep Robbie Gould around for two more years, and they face a ton of big decisions in the months to come. In today’s Shanaplan podcast, Kyle Posey and Akash Anavarathan decided to take a look at some of what Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch face in 2021 - starting with what to do at running back.
About a year ago at this time, Raheem Mostert was carrying the 49ers to the Super Bowl with his 220 yard, four touchdown game against the Packers in the NFC Championship. It would have been absolutely crazy at that point to suggest that anyone else be the starting running back for the team in the immediate future.
Arizona Cardinals prepare for return of George Kittle
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The Arizona Cardinals will need to prepare for the return of All Pro tight end George Kittle on Sunday.
While the San Francisco 49ers have not announced for certain whether he is playing, they have said if he is healthy they will play him.
This has drawn the ire of fans, but it also has brought an interesting discussion forward.
What Shanahan was saying above speaks about the team culture. Kittle is healthy. I’ve seen him run. He looks like No. 85. We have to assume that Kittle is healthy. Knowing that Kittle is healthy, you’re going to get some funny looks when you address the team, and they see Kittle isn’t playing. Shanahan mentioned that he’d have to pull the likes of Fred Warner, Trent Williams, and perhaps another one of his best players if he were to give Kittle the “superstar” treatment.
Shanaplan Podcast: Kyle Shanahan admits the truth about last year’s playoffs
He lost confidence in Garoppolo and took the ball away from him
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When the 49ers made the Super Bowl despite their quarterback throwing just 27 passes in two playoff games, many analysts said that showed a lack of faith in Jimmy Garoppolo by Kyle Shanahan. Niners fans, myself included, defended Garoppolo and Shanahan’s faith in him by saying the ground game was too successful to go away from. Yesterday, we finally got the truth from Kyle himself when he was asked about turnovers.