Shanahan's Offense Has a Juszczyk-Shaped Problem It Can't Scheme Around

Kyle Juszczyk has been out, and I've been writing that sentence in various forms for two weeks now. What's worth noting again — because it keeps being true — is that his absence isn't a personnel gap you can patch with a depth signing. The fullback position in Kyle Shanahan's system is structural. Juszczyk doesn't just block; he dictates where defenses align before the snap, which is half the reason the run game works at all.

The numbers he put up last season — 29 catches on 33 targets, two touchdowns across 18 games — undersell the role. Those are the catches that came when he was open. What doesn't show up is the motion, the lead block, the pre-snap read he forces a linebacker to make. Christian McCaffrey's 1,285 rushing yards last season were built on a lot of things, and one of them was Juszczyk arriving at the point of attack first.

There's no fullback on the depth chart behind him. The tight ends — Brayden Willis and Khalil Dinkins — can approximate some of what he does in-line, but approximation is the operative word. Shanahan will adjust; he always does. My read is that the adjustment costs something, though, and with Bosa already out and the defense carrying its own weight, the offense can't afford to be running at partial capacity for much longer.