Kyle Shanahan is coming off a 2016 season that saw him lead the Atlanta Falcons to the No. 1-scoring offense in the NFL. He also helped Matt Ryan turne into the NFL MVP.
What a far cry it is going to be for Shanahan now that he's been named the San Francisco 49ers' fourth head coach in as many years. The long anticipated move came less than 24 hours after Shanahan and his former Falcons team blew a 25-point lead against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI.
Now, the former Falcons offensive coordinator turns his sights on fixing the mess that is the San Francisco 49ers. There's a ton of work to be done here. After all, San Francisco finished the 2016 campaign with two wins (both against the four-win Los Angeles Rams) while putting up the sixth-fewest points in the NFL.
From a fantasy perspective, there's simply too much undecided here to come to any sort of a conclusion about what the hiring of Shanahan does for the 49ers.
First of, Colin Kaepernick is expected to opt out of his contract and is unlikely to return to the 49ers. Considering most of Shanahan's success as an offensive coordinator has come with pure drop-back passers like Ryan and Kirk Cousins under center, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Though, it surely leaves the 49ers with a gaping hole at quarterback. After all, both Christian Ponder and Blaine Gabbert are also impending free agents.
That's going to be the biggest key here. How does Shanahan and new 49ers general manager John Lynch handle the quarterback position in their first offseason working with one another. Surely, Cousins will be linked to the 49ers with his past relationship with Shanahan. There's also talk about the 49ers being interested in Jimmy Garoppolo.
As it is, Shanahan has been a fantasy boon for quarterbacks throughout his career. Ryan finished this past season as the second-best fantasy quarterback. That came a year after he finished as a QB2 option in Shanahan's first season as the Falcons' offensive coordinator.
Prior to that, Shanahan actually helped the Browns to a somewhat decent 7-9 record while overwatching a decent performance from career backup Brian Hoyer. Also important to note, he helped Cousins progress as the Redskins' offensive coordinator from 2010-13.
Though, anything we would focus on here from a fantasy perspective at quarterback would be pure conjecture until the team actually decides on who its 2017 starter will be.
What we do know is that Carlos Hyde will more likely than not be the 49ers' starting running back next season. Despite injury issues throughout his career, Hyde has proven himself to be more than capable of filling up the stat sheet. He tallied 1,151 total yards and nine touchdowns in 13 games with San Francisco last season.
This surely bodes well for Hyde's fantasy relevance heading into 2017. Remember, Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman combined ot put up 2,492 total yards and 24 touchdowns for the Falcons this past season. Despite being a pass-heavy scheme, Shanahan's offense has been very running back friendly in the past.
Much like the quarterback position, we're going to have to take a wait-and-see approach at receiver. The only real fantasy relevant option for the 49ers over the past couple seasons has been Torrey Smith. Though, he's coming off a disastrous and injury plagued 2016 campaign. There's also no guarantee that Smith will be back with the 49ers in 2017.
If he were to return, and depending on what happens at quarterback, Smith could see an uptick in relevance. Remember, he led the NFL in yards per reception back in 2015. This is a clear indication that the veteran could fill a Taylor Gabriel type role in Shanahan's offense with the 49ers.
Either way, it's simply too early to tell what is going to happen here. What we do know is the 49ers hired a head coach that has led four top-10 offenses in the past five seasons. That surely will help the team improve from an offensive standpoint.