Why are the 49ers so unique?

Please humor the question, admittedly from a diehard fan.

The 49ers beat the New York Giants on Thursday fairly convincingly, 30-12. It should have been more of a beatdown, honestly, but the game truly never felt all that competitive. That’s NOT what I’m focusing on here - there are different levels of team strengths, and the 49ers are an elite squad while the Giants are still working up to becoming a consistent playoff team.

Being a great NFL team is rare, but hardly unique. The Chiefs, Cowboys, Eagles, Bills, Bengals and others have all been in this conversation for some time - but, with admittedly a fans lens on the situation, I think the 49ers are different from all of these teams in one key respect.

It’s not this guy.

OK, maybe it is … but not in the way most think about when they talk about coach Kyle Shanahan. It’s not just the way he schemes the most talented offense into open looks, etc. That’s amazing (and super fun to watch as a fan). But when folks talk about the 49ers offensive weapons - Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, George Kittle - and maybe even add in studs elsewhere like Trent Williams, Fred Warner, Nick Bosa and others … they often miss a critical thing.

Nothing should terrify an opponent as much as Deebo AFTER the catch.

The team is incredibly talented, yes. But they’re also MUCH more PHYSICAL than almost any other team. And I’m not sure why.

You hear other teams talk about it - whether it’s the offense complaining about how hard the 49ers hit or even the DEFENSE talking about the tough blocks they get from the 49ers offense, opponents of the 49ers are just physically worn down during games.

Last season, every single team that played the 49ers - whether they won or lost that matchup - lost the next week. While that certainly has some statistical noise in there, that’s never happened before and I think it’s telling.

Whether it’s brutally hard hits from guys like Warner, Talanoa Hufanga or any of the most stacked defensive line in the league (newly acquired Javon Hargrave notched his second sack of the season and has been looking excellent), or defenders just missing 49ers or getting dragged down the field by them, opponents wake up the day after playing the 49ers both mentally and physically sore.

The NFL doesn’t really let me embed much video but Deebo Samuel dragged or bounced off literally half the New York Giants team on his way to a 50-yard catch yesterday. He scored against the Rams when he should have ben tackled behind the line of scrimmage. And in both cases, it’s because of Deebo’s ferocity AND the blocking downfield by his teammates.

The team loves contact. That’s simply not true for so many other teams.

And my question, simply, is why?

While the 49ers haven’t won a championship (yet) like this, it’s clear it’s a tactical advantage. You need the right players to execute this - and it’s not always something they enter the league with. Brandon Aiyuk was in Shanahan’s doghouse after his rookie season, at least partially because he wasn’t fully committed to contact, blocking, etc. Now it’s one of his strengths. So the team drafts guys like this but also develops them.

Why don’t other teams? Even teams like the Jets, Dolphins and Texans, who are coached by disciples of Shanahan, don’t seem to be bringing this ethos along with them. (The Jets might, and perhaps it’s simply too early to tell with the Texans, but the Dolphins are clearly built on speed and athleticism, which is great but … different.)

I suspect other teams worry about their own players getting injured - which is legit, and certainly something that has plagued the 49ers at times, though I rarely would say it’s due to them being too physical.

Why don’t other teams try to play like this? Do they, and I’m just not seeing it? (I think the Eagles are close, and the Bills SHOULD play this way, but it’s just different.)

Teams trying to match Shanahan’s playcalling abilities are rarely able to do so - but building a physical team like this is within every teams capabilities. (Also, folks who continually rail against the 49ers draft room need to also praise them for drafting guys who sign up for this style of play.)