How the 49ers Will be Improved on Special Teams Under Brian Schneider

Special teams was putrid from the 49ers in 2021.

It easily cost them more games than it did to win them, despite the unit coming up clutch against the Packers in the divisional playoff round. Sure enough, it was against a unit that was much worse than the 49ers themselves.

Richard Hightower was the special teams coach who had zero answers on how to fix the issues. He was in over his head last season, which is why the 49ers had no problem letting him go to the Bears. Brian Schneider, who spent multiple years with the Seahawks, takes over the unit. Schneider spent the 2021 year out of the league, but looks refreshed and ready to get back into the thick of things again. 

It is going to be a tall task for Schneider to get the 49ers' special teams improved, but one player is already seeing what those improvements will be.

"Really good first impressions. I like his style," said Kyle Juszczyk on Brian Schneider. "He's very upbeat, uptempo, positive and aggressive. And I think that's going to carry over to our special teams unit this year. I feel like we're gonna be much more aggressive, we're gonna be attacking more, and really bringing it to teams as opposed to the other way around."

That is quite a quote from Juszczyk towards the end there. He is right on the money here. Last year's special teams unit definitely looked like they were just letting the opposition take it to them. Essentially they let themselves get punked and weren't really taking charge. Everyone seemed to be going through the motions, which starts with the coach of the unit.

Schneider with his vast experience will be looking to end that. And with Juszczyk giving such a detailed explanation on how that improvement will be, you know that it will most likely become as he says. Juszczyk doesn't blow hot air. What he says something, he says it with conviction and thorough observations. 2022 needs to be an aggressive and initiative unit from the special teams under Schneider.

Pair that up with the multiple players they signed to boost the special teams, and the 49ers looked poised to be a unit that will win more games than lose them.