Make California Post a Preferred Source San Francisco 49ers vs. Denver Broncos: Playbook Kyle Shanahan needs a bottle of white-out, so that he can erase No. 15 from his play sheet this week. Maybe Mike Evans is hurt. Maybe it’s not as bad as he let on leaving the field last week.
For their part, the 49ers seemed confident that Evans’ rib injury wasn’t a major concern, even though it kept the 33-year-old out of practice this week and they signed Brandin Cooks to the active roster. It’s not like Brock Purdy is itching to cross off yet another receiver from his list of potential targets.
Either way, the 49ers’ misfortune could just end up working in their favor against the Broncos defense. And it doesn’t have to involve Evans as anything more than a decoy.
Denver boasts arguably the top cover corner in the NFL.
But that’s not much use if there’s nobody worth covering.
If Evans plays, as anticipated, expect Patrick Surtain II to be glued to him all game. And if he doesn’t? Are the Broncos going to get the most out of his talents shutting down Jordan Watkins?
Surtain, the 2024 Defensive Player of the Year, has made his name — and four Pro Bowls — on shutting down any given opponent’s top receiver. He doesn’t often mess around with tight ends or running backs, where Shanahan possesses his most dangerous weapons.
The Denver defense under coordinator Vance Joseph is far from a one-man show, but when it comes to neutralizing its best player, the 49ers may be uniquely well-positioned.
Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle have been slowly revving into gear week by week and are primed to kick it up a notch as the Niners do their best to exploit the weak points in a unit that ranked in the top-three in yards and points allowed last season.
“Vance is one of the toughest guys just because they can do anything front-wise, coverage-wise, pressure-wise,” Shanahan said. “And then when you mix in their corners, their safeties, how they are with their pass rush, whether they come with four or five and their linebackers, it’s not a surprise they were one of the best defenses in the league last year.”
Surtain is likely to be playing with a chip on his shoulder, even after the Broncos came back to beat the Rams last week. His assignment was to shadow Davante Adams, but the presence of the three-time All-Pro didn’t scare Matthew Stafford from targeting his top receiver.
Stafford threw Adams’ way 10 times and completed five passes for 77 yards. The 37.6 grade Surtain got from Pro Football Focus was the second-lowest of his career and lowest since 2022.
Without Puka Nacua, Adams was clearly the Rams’ best option. But even after losing their top four receivers, the 49ers can at least still lean on McCaffrey and Kittle.
“It’s gonna be another challenge,” Surtain told reporters this week. “It’s the same system that we’ve been facing these past two weeks – that same Shanahan/McVay system – so we’ve just got to be ready to understand how they’re going to try to attack us.”
Purdy has arguably been the best quarterback in the NFL through three weeks, but he has his work cut out for him on a number of fronts against Vance Joseph’s defense. He will at least have the advantage of having faced off against the Broncos’ ballhawking safety in practice for three seasons, up until Hufunga left for Denver in 2024.
Coach Kyle Shanahan said he has “nothing but love for Huff” and was “real excited” to watch him pick off Matthew Stafford twice last week, including a 66-yarder that he took to the house to help them pull off a 30-26 comeback win. Purdy was picked off at the fourth-highest rate in the league last season (3.5%), but he’s more than cut that in half with just one in 83 attempts this year (1.2%).
Nevertheless, Shanahan said, “we’ve got our work cut out to make sure that they don’t happen this week.”
Purdy and the 49ers have provided no reason to pick against them yet this season. Their offense has been far-and-away the most efficient in the NFL.
They’ve outscored their opponents by 48 points through three weeks, the widest margin in the league. Injuries are beginning to pile up, and if the Niners don’t pull this one out the absence of Nick Bosa is sure to loom large, but they haven’t caught up to them yet.
1. POSSESSION BATTLE: The defensive line should be in marginally better shape than it was last week, but lining them up for 81 snaps for a second week in a row is no winning formula. That means the 49ers need to do a better job of getting off the field. Opponents have averaged 7.1 plays per drive against the Niners, tied for the most in the NFL, and only two defenses (Dallas, Tennessee) have been on the field longer on average (3:24). Fred Warner’s solution? “Gotta find more ways to create takeaways.” The ball he punched out in Week 1 amounted to one of only two turnovers forced so far by San Francisco’s defense. They should have ample opportunities against Bo Nix, who has thrown an interception in all three games to start the season and fumbled three times in Week 1.
2. DRE’S REVENGE: It’s already been evident how much the 49ers missed Dre Greenlaw in his one-year sabbatical in the Rocky Mountains, especially his linebacking partner Warner. They combined for 25 tackles last week against Arizona, and a similar effort will be needed again to pick up the slack for a defensive line missing in the neighborhood of a half dozen bodies. He bruised his quad and was limited this week in practice, but expect Greenlaw to come out hitting even harder than usual to show off what he wasn’t able to in only eight games last season.
3. PROTECT PURDY: The 49ers’ quarterback is the last one standing. He’s gone three games without taking a sack, and San Francisco could become the first team since the 2005 Colts to make it four games into a season without letting their QB hit the ground. But the Broncos’ front seven poses the stiffest test that the 49ers offensive line will have faced this season. All-Pro defensive end Zach Allen has three sacks in three weeks, and Denver has racked up eight as a team, tied for seventh in the NFL. Purdy was near-perfect last week when he had a clean pocket, but on the rare times he was pressured, he completed just 1 of 8 attempts.
4. FRONT-RUNNING: The 49ers have yet to trail in any of their three games this season. The Broncos have fallen behind in all three of their contests, including 16-0 against the Rams last week, and still pulled out two of them. Denver’s offense has put up 10 combined points in three first halves, while the 49ers’ defense hasn’t allowed a touchdown before halftime since Week 1. But they won’t be able to afford to wear down again in the second half like they did last week against the Cardinals, who mounted three TD drives after halftime. Nix, with 12 game-winning drives in two-plus seasons, will be sure to give them more than just a scare.
