SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- It's the day after the San Francisco 49ers' dominant season-opening win against the Pittsburgh Steelers and the team meeting room is brimming with anticipation.
As part of the Niners' weekly film review, coach Kyle Shanahan selects plays from the previous game that could have been better and others that were executed to perfection. On this day, everyone is eagerly awaiting the highlight of the Pittsburgh win: running back Christian McCaffrey's 65-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter.
When the play flashes on the screen, the room perks up, reliving the moment. McCaffrey bursts through the left side of the offensive line, making Steelers cornerback Levi Wallace whiff with a spin move.
The cheers increase before the real fun begins. A moment later, receiver Brandon Aiyuk crosses McCaffrey's face as the running back darts to the outside, coming clean for a crushing block that sends Steelers safety Damontae Kazee to the ground. Fellow wideout Deebo Samuel has already taken Steelers cornerback Chandon Sullivan out of the mix.
McCaffrey breaks free, with Steelers cornerback Patrick Peterson pursuing him from the opposite side of the field. Peterson appears to have the sideline available to prevent McCaffrey from scoring. But another wideout, Ray-Ray McCloud III, has been tracking Peterson the whole way, running almost step for step with the veteran corner. McCaffrey cuts inside, turning Peterson around long enough for McCloud to get in position for the final block that paves McCaffrey's way into the end zone as the room erupts in approval.
CMC 65-YARD TOUCHDOWN
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"It was lit," Aiyuk said. "Everybody was juiced up. Plays like that, those are the types of plays that get our team going, gets the locker room going, shows our defense how we play on offense. It was fun."
Brimming with skill-position talent -- such as McCaffrey, Samuel, Aiyuk and tight end George Kittle-- big plays are nothing unusual for the 49ers, especially in the run game. Since Shanahan and general manager John Lynch arrived in 2017, those big, flashy plays have made plenty of highlight reels, but underneath that shiny exterior lies a foundational emphasis on doing the dirty work. One doesn't come without the other.
In that time, San Francisco has ripped off 39 runs of 30-plus yards, second-most in the NFL. But it takes more than a talented back to make them happen. As Shanahan and anyone in his orbit is quick to remind, the only way to elevate a 10- to 15-yard gain to a 30-yard plus run that goes for a touchdown is for all 11 players to be wholly invested in blocking, which they'll need to be again Sunday, when they travel to play the Cleveland Browns and their rugged defense (1 p.m. ET, Fox).
It's why there's a hard hat and a sharpie for the 49ers wideouts to sign and date any time they make a knockdown block. And why receivers coach Leonard Hankerson is constantly repeating the four-word mantra he wants to define his group: No block, no rock.
"We're gonna run the ball," Hankerson said. "As receivers, we gotta do our job. And our job is to go and hit somebody in the mouth. That way our running backs can have a chance to score on 50- and 60-yard runs ... At the end of the day, if you don't block, you can't get the ball, or you can't get on the field. ... That is the first priority."
One of the first moves the Niners made after Shanahan and Lynch arrived was signing wideout Pierre Garcon, the type of tone-setting receiver whose physical style made him equally adept at gaining yards after the catch and blocking on the perimeter.
At the time, Shanahan also wanted his receivers to be separators, getting open in the passing game along with being effective run blockers. It proved to be a difficult combination to find even with San Francisco's run-game success.
After the 2018 season, Shanahan and Lynch pivoted to a different philosophy, leaning all the way into battering opponents with yards after the catch and hoping to find wideouts better equipped to handle press coverage at the line of scrimmage. A byproduct of that shift, which led them to draft Samuel with a second-round pick, was that they already had players who were unafraid of contact and could quickly be taught the finer points of the run game.
Coincidentally, it was the midseason addition of receiver Emmanuel Sanders that year which really set the tone. At 5-foot-11, 180 pounds, Sanders was never the biggest wideout but spent his first two years in the league learning from Hines Ward, who is widely regarded as one of the best run-blocking receivers in NFL history.
"Emmanuel is one of my favorite receivers of all time," Shanahan said. "I think he showed a huge standard for that. Him being one of the smaller guys compared to the others, just weight-wise, he didn't turn anything down and he always had good technique and stuff. That's all you need, to me, as a receiver."
Samuel was never far away from Sanders, picking his brain and following his lead. The following year, the Niners drafted Aiyuk in the first round and Jauan Jennings in the seventh. They added McCloud in free agency prior to last season and grabbed Ronnie Bell in the seventh round this year.
The message was delivered to each before they touched down in the Bay Area.
"That was one of the first things that I was told when I got drafted," Bell said. "That's the expectation. It's something we definitely take to heart."
Regardless of size, 49ers receivers have been consistent difference makers in the run game. Through five games, the Niners are averaging 156.4 rushing yards per game (third in the NFL) and 4.5 yards per carry (seventh). San Francisco's run game is even better when it puts more wideouts on the field. In 11 personnel (three receivers), the Niners are ripping off 6.5 yards per carry, second-best in the NFL.
Those numbers are the result of repeated emphasis, attention to detail in technique and the desire to get the job done even if there isn't as much glory in blocking for the touchdown as there is in scoring it.
On McCaffrey's Pittsburgh score, he ran a true distance of 81.8 yards with a top speed of 19.47 miles per hour. But it wouldn't have been possible if McCloud hadn't covered 82.5 yards with a top speed of 21.03 mph to land the final block.
"That's something we're supposed to do," McCloud said. "In the moment of the game, I guess it was a big play. You just never know when a moment is going to change the game."
The hard hat sits in the middle of the wide receivers room, a constant reminder of the standard. The day after the Pittsburgh game, McCaffrey's touchdown run is replayed again as Aiyuk takes the pen and signs the hat.
This is where the receivers find their most satisfying slice of internal competition. Jennings estimates he's signed it the most in recent years, something the others don't necessarily dispute, though Jennings is quick to point out he has two knockdowns this season and needs to add to his tally.
After all, his fellow receivers are always coming for that plastic yellow crown.
"It's everything about football, especially when you get to come back and watch the game together as a team and everybody could see that you are putting somebody else on their ass and taking somebody's will," Jennings said. "That's what we are here to do."