The San Francisco 49ers made numerous additions this offseason, and there has been a lot of question about what players fit what scheme. Head coach Kyle Shanahan has repeatedly said most good football players can play in most schemes.
Shanahan continued with that refrain in his first meeting with the media for the start of the offseason workout program. He was asked about draft philosophy and finding the right players to fit his scheme. He said that if there was a tiebreaker maybe you lean scheme, but otherwise, you’re looking for the best talent.
However, the discussion got interesting when Shanahan discussed the quarterback position. He talked about the value of having some similarities among your quarterback. The issue being that you can’t be perfect at everything, so you want to focus in on specific things you think you can nail down. Having quarterbacks that do distinctly different things well creates problems more for the rest of the team than anything else.
As Shanahan put it, when you try and fit certain things to one or two players, you have to factor in making changes for the rest of the unit. That creates more issues for everybody. Although good players can fit in most schemes, that is not a 100 percent truism.
Shanahan was asked in the context of Colin Kaepernick, and he once again suggested that Kaepernick would not have been a fit for what they want to do. He also seemed to offer a subtle hint at his time with Washington. Kirk Cousins and Robert Griffin III are decidedly different quarterbacks, and it was not a simple process of having one of them backing up the other. You had two different styles, and it simply did not work the way they would have wanted.
This does not exactly clear up who the 49ers will be looking at for the quarterback position. There are some differences amongst them, for sure, but I don’t think there are any differences that would automatically remove any of the top names on the board. Maybe further down sure, but for now, the 49ers are playing their cards close to the vest.