Golden Nuggets: John Lynch says the 49ers are “sure fortunate to have” Deebo Samuel

The 49ers return to the practice field this week after their bye. Their opponent beat up on a bad Texans team. More on that matchup later this morning.

Sunday Randomness: The 49ers Don’t Have To Look Far For An Important Lesson On Trey Lance

“The lesson in that for Shanahan is to protect Lance.

Let’s put 16 rushes in perspective. Cam Newton has reached that number once in his career, regular season or playoffs. Griffin never did. Michael Vick never did. Kyler Murray hasn’t yet. Russell Wilson got as high as 14 once, back in 2014. Lamar Jackson has been credited with 16 carries or more in a game 12 times in his career, including twice this year. But he didn’t get his first double-digit carries game until Week 10 of his rookie year.

No matter how you measure it, Lance ran the ball a lot.”

49ers’ John Lynch “Real Proud” Of Deebo Samuel’s Development

“I’m real proud of Deebo’s development, and I think he gets the credit. I think he’s been coached very well, but I think, ultimately, it comes down to the player. Are you willing to invest what it takes to be great? And Deebo has put that investment forward. His body has allowed him to this year by staying healthy, and we’re sure fortunate that we have him.”

49ers’ Raheem Mostert excited for recovery journey after ‘great’ surgery

“Following successful knee surgery, 49ers running back Raheem Mostert is on the road to recovery.”

Three Biggest Headaches for the 2021 San Francisco 49ers

49ers have a general lack of focus

“The five Week 5 San Francisco penalties mentioned earlier came in the form of offensive holding calls. Now, let’s consider the fact the 49ers have only seven such calls against them for the entire year. These five calls in one week indicate the lack of preparation going into the game.”

Barrows: 49ers need a bye-week reboot; here are 5 problems — and solutions

That’s the biggest reason for the offensive incoherence.

Shanahan prefers a 50-50 split between the run and pass. In fact, when the 49ers have been at their best they’ve tended to tilt slightly more to the run. That was the case in 2019 when they had 498 rushing attempts and 478 pass attempts. The run game became the defining characteristic of Shanahan’s 49ers offense. It’s the offensive identity. This year, even with Trey Lance’s abnormally high number of carries on Sunday, that ratio is 166:144 in favor of the pass.

Garoppolo needs the play-action game to thrive and the 49ers certainly could use a more dangerous third-down back capable of beating linebackers on pass patterns. The 49ers went into the season with Mostert in that role and Hasty as his backup. By the end of Week 2, both were hurt and the 49ers have used fullback Kyle Juszczyk since.

Sunday Randomness: The 49ers don’t have to look far for an important lesson on Trey Lance

The lesson in that for Shanahan is to protect Lance.

Let’s put 16 rushes in perspective. Cam Newton has reached that number once in his career, regular season or playoffs. Griffin never did. Michael Vick never did. Kyler Murray hasn’t yet. Russell Wilson got as high as 14 once, back in 2014. Lamar Jackson has been credited with 16 carries or more in a game 12 times in his career, including twice this year. But he didn’t get his first double-digit carries game until Week 10 of his rookie year.

No matter how you measure it, Lance ran the ball a lot. Of his 16 runs, he was credited with four scrambles. And because of his particular attributes as a runner, he was hit a lot. Shanahan shouldn’t be good with that, especially since the beauty of Lance’s potential is that he was supposed to be more like a pocket quarterback who could run well. Indeed, the 49ers’ running back corps has been hit hard by injuries. But the 49ers’ investment is not safe if they use him as a primary running back as a default until Shanahan gets comfortable with him throwing more.