Tackling was a problem that plagued the 49ers throughout last season, but that doesn’t mean they’ll do any live tackling drills in training camp.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan didn’t mince words when denying any potential live tackling sessions in camp.
“No,” he said. “Absolutely not.”
There’s contact between players once the pads come on at camp, but players typically hit without wrapping and tackling. Negative experiences in tackling drills are why Shanahan shies away from it now.
“Because I’ve learned the hard way watching people do that,” he said. “Lose way too many people in the teams I’ve been on doing that. It’s been about 10 years since I’ve been on a team that does that and I don’t think that’s the way to get your team better at tackling. I think that’s a way to just CYA and say we did it. I’ve been on a lot of teams that are good at tackling and we didn’t do it that year.”
The injury-mitigation theme of camp is in line with Shanahan’s thought process in regard to live tackling. There’s risk of players getting hurt even without contact. Adding in the contact and tackling elements only up that risk. Not to mention they’ll get four games worth of live tackling and hitting when the 49ers play their preseason slate.
Instead the team will work on tackling drills with coaching and other drills that don’t involve player-to-player contact. That’s the smart solution for a team that desperately needs to stay healthy this season.
