The San Francisco 49ers offense has been humming this season, being in the top five in most efficiency metrics, as well as points per game, thanks to another strong play-calling year from Kyle Shanahan and an MVP-level season from Brock Purdy.
Over the years, one area the 49ers have really excelled in has been the red zone. When the 49ers are clicking there, they’re usually winning games. Back during their Super Bowl campaign in 2023, San Francisco led the NFL in red zone touchdown percentage, converting
over two-thirds of their opportunities.
During the team’s down year in 2024, they dropped all the way to 14th. Last year, they jumped back into the top five, converting over 65 percent of their red zone drives into touchdowns. Well, this season, not only are the 49ers scoring in the red zone as they’ve been accustomed to, but they’re doing it at a historic rate.
So far, the 49ers have converted a whopping 84.6 percent of their red zone drives into touchdowns this season, topping the second-highest team by over 12 percent. They’re still averaging 3.3 red zone drives a game as well.
What has been the difference-maker there so far?
“One, I think we’ve been pretty effective running the ball down there,” offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak said about the red zone. “I think anytime you look at red zone offense, it’s got to start with running the football. When you can run the ball effectively, when you’re not in tough passing situations in the red zone, you’re usually a pretty good red zone team. You get to more goal-to-go situations. You get into second-and-short, you get into third-and-manageable and it’s things you can manage. It’s things you can execute.
“When you’re in third-and-long in the red zone or second-and-long, it’s hard. There’s not a lot of space. You just run out of room. We run the ball pretty well. It helps having Mike Evans out there, a guy who’s a big target, who’s a fade target, who you can win in isolations. That’s been big for us. It helps to have a scrambling quarterback, a guy who can make plays with his legs. When you combine those things, I think it’s maybe why we’ve had success, but we’ve got to keep going. We’ve got to keep doing it. We’ve got to try to study it every week, put in the right plans, give our guys a chance to execute and keep running the ball down there.”
In the air, George Kittle has been a weapon in the red zone, ranking eighth in the NFL with eight catches in the area for 51 yards and three touchdowns. He’s third in receptions inside the 10-yard line with five catches for 16 yards and three touchdowns.
Of course, Mike Evans has been a big help there, not only as a big receiver commanding space, but in freeing up other things as well. And Christian McCaffrey is third in the NFL in red zone rushing touchdowns.
The 49ers will likely regress a bit from their historic touchdown rate right now, but they’re executing at a really high level in the red zone, and their offense is seeing great success because of it.
