Despite everything that has gone well for the San Francisco 49ers in recent years, the special teams unit has always seemed to be a thorn in the side of head coach Kyle Shanahan’s side. As the Niners have stumbled out of the gate this season, several special teams blunders proved costly and led to narrow losses.

Needless to say, this has led to understandable scrutiny of the 49ers’ entire unit and questions for the head coach.

Shanahan has always emphasized a safe approach to special teams strategy. The Niners have generally tried to prioritize stability in their kick return game over potentially more dynamic options. During his press release on Tuesday, Shanahan was asked to clarify some of those earlier comments.

“Yeah, I don’t know if I always had the right words for that,” Shanahan admitted. “But what I will say is you want to build a team where you don’t feel like you have to return a kick or a punt or a fake kick or a fake punt or you won’t have it up to leave something like that to achieve a victory. I like the feeling that you can make it between offense and defense just by hitting someone.

I think one of the best ways to win games in this league is not to lose a game and not find a way to lose it. Many games are given away. When it comes to special teams, with the amount of touchbacks and so on, just extra points, a punt-off, those are chances to lose it if one of them gets blocked. There are only so many special teams plays that go into a game, and you shouldn’t take undue risk trying to win it there when you only have 10 to 15 plays.

If you take away all the touchbacks and stuff, it’s even less. So you don’t want to take the risk of moving your stuff there. You’d rather do it with guys who are out there for 70 games in a row.”

Shanahan’s conservative approach to special teams strategy sounds sensible, especially given his history as an effective offensive player. However, it’s worth asking whether the Niners’ pursuit of safety is actually creating an environment that encourages more mistakes.

In a game as violent and confusing as football, asking players to take fewer risks in certain circumstances can lead to overthinking and hesitation, which can prove costly. Regardless of the root cause, 49ers special teams coordinator Brian Schneider will try to get the unit back on track.