For all of this week's talk about the plethora of weapons the 49ers offense will deploy against the Steelers this Sunday, Matt Canada is relying on the weapons scattered around Kenny Pickett to help produce the same feel.
The expectations and improvements made over the offseason and in training camp from the second-year quarterback are well-documented by this point. Pickett has shown more poise, has looked more comfortable, and showed more fluidity over the course of camp and the offseason, compared to the 13-game sampling he showed last year.
But, should an uptick in success come to fruition, how transitive will that be with respect to Canada?
It just might start with spreading the ball around and creating opportunities for Pickett to find those secondary and tertiary options given the play.
"You're always going to try to get your guys involved but we're feeling good about where we're sitting today," Canada said during his weekly press conference Thursday at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. "We're healthy. The amount of play makers we have and how can you get everybody to touch the ball, I don't know that that's necessarily possible in a 60, 65-play game every week. There may be some weeks when one guys' based on matchup or based on how it starts going, he gets that hot hand and you see a little bit more production and you might see week to week. We feel really good about the guys you mentioned and getting those guys involved, and still feel good about the guys that have been around and done some things. I think it's a game-to-game situation based on how they're playing and how people are playing us."
During the preseason, Pickett completed 13 of 15 passing attempts while connecting with six different receivers: Diontae Johnson (four targets), George Pickens (three), Allen Robinson (three), Pat Freiermuth (two), Najee Harris (two) and Jaylen Warren (one). In the preseason opener against Tampa Bay, Pickett connected with Johnson three times, or for half of his completions. Robinson was targeted twice out of Pickett's four attempts in the second preseason game against Buffalo, and he looked for four different receivers on his four attempts in the preseason finale at Atlanta.
Perhaps by coincidence and with removing the newly acquired Robinson, the remaining five aforementioned players were five of the team's top six finishers in targets last season, with the exception being Chase Claypool prior to his trade to Chicago. Johnson's 147 targets were tied for seventh in the NFL and Freiermuth's 98 were tied for fifth among NFL tight ends last season.
"I think Coach Canada and everyone's going to put us in the right positions to succeed and are not going to ask us to do something we're not comfortable with," Freiermuth told me after Thursday's practice. "We've just got to be in the right situation and have the full trust in each other. ... We have a lot of weapons on offense, so Kenny feeding (the ball) around, it's hard for a defense to predict what we're going to do, so we've just got to continue to feed our play makers the ball and make sure that we're on the same page with Kenny throughout the whole game."
The difference between the Steelers' skill position players trusting Canada to do that and Canada actually doing that on a consistent basis cannot be a great one in 2023, if this offense plans to contend in a tough AFC North and a tougher AFC for a playoff spot. This offense clicked -- mainly from a rushing standpoint -- in the second half of 2023 and picked up from where it left off in the preseason, but a nearly perfect preseason still has to be refined before the games count for real wins and losses, and especially against the team that boasted the NFL's top defense a season ago.
"It obviously counts on Sunday," Canada said. "Playing the best defense in the league last year. You couldn't script it better than what's happened, but as I've said multiple times none of that really counts, so we'll see how we play on Sunday. I think we're coming into it with the right mindset. We're healthy right now, guys are excited to play as you always are this time of year. We'll just have to see how it goes on Sunday."
Pickens has superstar potential written all over him, but Johnson's status as Pickett's top target cannot be undervalued.
Johnson might not see 147 targets again, or the career-high 169 to finish tied for second in the NFL in 2021, but he will more than likely still be responsible for the bulk of the targets as his connection with Pickett has come along just as strong as Pickens' has with Pickett.
"I think Diontae's really continued to mature since I've been here," Canada said. "I think he's coming with a real hard-working attitude this camp. I think he's excited about where we are, excited about where he is, and I think he and Kenny have done the things that we all wanted to see happen much faster last year, which really don't happen fast. Timing and those things really does take time and I think you see that and with that you've seen some more confidence with 'Tae and with Kenny. ... He came in and put the work in this summer to get that. I think he's continuing to be a master of his position and continuing to let his knowledge of the game grow."
Johnson finished with zero touchdowns last season despite the loaded number of targets and yards, but that is sure to change in 2023. It helps to have a developing Pickens running on the opposite side of him to help free up some space.
"It helps everybody as a whole," Pickett said Wednesday. "Run, pass, you name it. We want to have guys on both sides of the ball that defenses are worried about. Someone will be singled up somewhere and, you know, it's my job to find them."
