Despite the injuries with which they had to deal at quarterback and at the offensive skill positions in 2025, the 49ers still had one of the most efficient offenses in football.
Indeed, the Niners finished sixth in EPA per play and third in success rate on offense rate last season, though they did so while struggling in one key area that has flown under the radar.
Despite their strong performance in the metrics that are key measures of offensive efficiency, the 49ers did not have an explosive offensive in 2025.
To the contrary, the 49ers ranked 21st in explosive play rate last season. Per Sumer Sports, the 49ers had 80 explosive plays — defined as a pass play of 20 yards or a rush of at least 12 yards — from a total of 1,055 total plays, giving them an explosive play rate of just 7.58%.
San Francisco focused heavily on offense this offseason and, as the 49ers opened training camp on Saturday, GM John Lynch made it clear that they are concentrating heavily on significantly improving the number of explosives.
Asked about the issue at a press conference, Lynch said:
“We’ve always been an explosive team and probably fell off there a little. And so, in your personnel you go attack that. [WR] Mike Evans has been a tremendously explosive player. But I think the bigger approach has been collectively because explosives come in a lot of different shapes and sizes. They come in the run game and we fell off there. The explosives weren’t there as much and so that’s all 11 on the field. That’s your entire team and that’s what you emphasize. I think we spend a lot of time emphasizing that. We did address our personnel. I love what we were able to get accomplished this offseason. And now we’ve got to go to work and you’ve got to earn everything in this league. Explosives are no different. And they are an important part of football, limiting them on defense and going out there and being an incredibly explosive team on offense and on special teams. We always focus on that, but there has been a heightened focus on that.”
“We’ve always been an explosive team and probably fell off there a little. And so, in your personnel you go attack that. [WR] Mike Evans has been a tremendously explosive player. But I think the bigger approach has been collectively because explosives come in a lot of different shapes and sizes. They come in the run game and we fell off there. The explosives weren’t there as much and so that’s all 11 on the field. That’s your entire team and that’s what you emphasize. I think we spend a lot of time emphasizing that. We did address our personnel. I love what we were able to get accomplished this offseason. And now we’ve got to go to work and you’ve got to earn everything in this league. Explosives are no different. And they are an important part of football, limiting them on defense and going out there and being an incredibly explosive team on offense and on special teams. We always focus on that, but there has been a heightened focus on that.”
A huge part of the 49ers boosting their number of explosives will be the health of quarterback Brock Purdy. If Purdy can stay on the field for a full 17-game regular season, then the 49ers should have much more joy in creating explosives than they did in a 2025 campaign that saw Mac Jones fill in for eight games.
Having Mike Evans, a ball-dominant X whose Hall of Fame career has seen him establish a track record of making big plays downfield, should considerably aid the 49ers in terms of producing more pass game explosives. A healthy Ricky Pearsall would also help in a substantial way, considering his rapport with Purdy and the flashes he has displayed as a big-play weapon at all three levels, while the 49ers will be hoping free agent signing Christian Kirk and top draft pick De’Zhaun Stribling can have an impact with their ability to stretch the field and operate inside and out.
The situation in improving as an explosive run team is perhaps less straightforward. The 49ers only had 29 explosive runs last season, with their rate of 6.03% ranking 26th in the league, way behind the rate of 11.05% set by the Baltimore Ravens, who led the league.
Much will depend on the level of explosion Christian McCaffrey has in his legs after a 2025 season in which he averaged 3.9 yards per carry, his worst performance in that area since 2020, and had only three rushes of 20 yards or more. Kaelon Black or Jordan James emerging as a reliable backup to take some of the strain off McCaffrey would aid his cause, but history says the chances of either consistently eating into his career are slim.
There will also be an onus on the offensive line after McCaffrey averaged just 2.3 yards before contact last season, below the league average of 2.5. That number reflected a need for the 49ers to do a better job of opening running lanes for the future Hall of Famer and, as such, the makeup of an O-Line that still has question-marks on the interior figures to have a significant bearing on San Francisco’s success in becoming a more explosive football team in 2026.
San Francisco has made several moves with a view to becoming more explosive this season. However, fittingly for the 49ers, it is likely to be health and a longtime problem area that determine whether they pay off.
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