49ers count on McKittrick to work his magic

Sporting News, The, August 31, 1998 by Dan Pompei

Understand this. This is not the offensive line the 49ers wanted, The team thought it was set with Kirk Scrafford at one tackle, but a neck injury ended his career prematurely.

There were intentions to make a hard run at left tackle Todd Steussie, but the Vikings signed him right before he became a free agent. So the 49ers offered free-agent tackle/guard Joe Patton $400,000 a year more than the Redskins did, but Patton chose to remain with his old team. Then, the 49ers traded a second-round pick to the Broncos for tackle Jamie Brown, and later found out why the Broncos were so willing to part with a player at a position where they were thin. The team has been disappointed in Brown, who has missed most of preseason with a groin injury (even though the team's medical personnel cleared him to practice) and then was AWOL for the first exhibition game.

The 49ers intended to draft offensive tackle Mo Collins in the first round, but the Raiders traded ahead of the 49ers to steal Collins. The 49ers then used their second-round pick on center/guard Jeremy Newberry, but he blew out his knee and is lost for the season.

So this is what the 49ers are left with: Dave Fiore, a former undrafted free agent who never has played in a game at the NFL level--or even at the NCAA Division I level--starting at left tackle, and Derrick Deese, who was supposed to be a backup guard, starting at right tackle. In between are a pair of above-average veteran guards in Kevin Gogan and Ray Brown, and a journeyman center in Chris Dalman.

"If I were in their position, I'd be very concerned," one general manager says. "That's the worst pair of tackles in the league."

Offensive lines usually stand in between pass rushers and quarterbacks. This one threatens to stand between the 49ers and the Super Bowl.

Then again, the offensive line always has been an afterthought for this team. Before this year, it hadn't drafted an offensive lineman in the top two rounds since 1987, and had drafted only one offensive lineman in any round (Tim Hanshaw, fourth round, 1995) since 1993.

Why? In addition to having a quarterback, Steve Young, whose mobility, awareness and knowledge cover up blocking problems, the 49ers have an offensive line coach, Bobb McKittrick, who probably has gotten more production out of more bad players than any coach in the league. And that's what the 49ers are counting on.

"There are more important positions to fill," 49ers director of football operations Dwight Clark says. "We were prepared to sign an offensive tackle this year. But if it didn't happen, we knew we could go to Plan B and let Bobb work his magic. He's good at taking an inexperienced player and getting him ready to play."

Already, Fiore has acquitted himself well against some decent pass rushers in the preseason, and McKittrick is predicting Deese will be the most improved player on the team. Raiders coach Jon Gruden, who worked with McKittrick when he was a 49ers assistant in 1990, thinks McKittrick is the best position coach in football.

"He's a great schemer, the best I've ever been around as far as how to run the ball, how to protect the passer," Gruden says. "He's so creative."

In an era where most offensive linemen look like they should be floating above a parade, McKittrick likes "little" guys. He helped the 49ers to a Super Bowl victory after the 1981 season with 260-pound Dan Audick starting at tackle. Neither Deese nor Fiore is expected to weigh more than 280 once the season gets rolling.

"The things that are important to me are intelligence, movement, quickness, knee bend, explosion and center of gravity," McKittrick says. "Nowhere did I mention size. If you have all of those assets and you have size, that's a plus. But not many big ones can do all the things I like them to do."

Gogan came to the 49ers as a 330-pounder who had played in two Super Bowls (with the Cowboys) and one Pro Bowl (with the Raiders). But the front office had to force Gogan on McKittrick the way you have to force a pill on a dog. Though most of the league thinks zone blocking with behemoths is the way to go, McKittrick asks his linemen to play a different game.

McKittrick uses "all 14 clubs," to quote Gruden. His blockers use more techniques than almost any other blockers, and the 49ers use more runblocking and pass-blocking schemes than most teams. In fact, 49ers coach Steve Mariucci has, at times, been concerned that McKittrick was trying to do too much with his linemen. Former 49ers coach George Seifert had the same reaction on occasion.

"He doesn't have a set style," says Harris Barton, who is being used as a backup for the team's interior line this year. "If he sees the New York Jets run a play on film that looks good, he has no problem stealing it. Other coaches may say, `We're going to pass-block this way, run-block that way.' He's always changing and adapting."

These are the methods McKittrick deploys to compensate for lack of size and skill in his offensive line:

The cut block. By-the-book traditionalists teach their offensive linemen never to leave their feet. But in his 20 years with the Niners, McKittrick has been a pioneer of sorts with the cut block. Now, close to half the teams in the league do it at least occasionally.