Rypien, meanwhile, is exposed to his fourth different offense in five seasons, although three of them come from the same offensive philosophy tree in terms of the McVay-Shanahan system.
In Rypien’s first season with the Broncos in 2019, the offense was led by Rich Scangarello, who served as 49ers quarterback coach under head coach Kyle Shanahan in 2017 and 2018. In 2022 , the offense was led by Nathaniel Hackett and Justin Outten, both of whom previously worked under Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, who worked with McVay and Shanahan. Now, of course, Rypien learns of McVay’s attack.
The language varies between the offenses of the 49ers, Packers and Rams, but these systems share the same basic and fundamental principles, which effectively gives Rypien a three-season experience taking these principles and knowing what it looks like – something who can help Bennett learn McVay’s attack. Rypien was also unexpectedly useful.
“Brett is a pro of the pros,” Benett said. “He knows how to do it. He’s also texted me before, ‘if you need DoorDash or UberEats suggestions, I get it.’ I was like, ‘I will, man.’ But little things like that help. It’s all new to me, all that. I was in Georgia for the last six years, then in small town Georgia. Now we’re in Thousand Oaks right now, training so you need all the help you can get but just small questions like on footwork here on game simulations or transfers stuff like that he already has had those questions and heard it from different offenses too, as well as this one. But yeah, Brett was a big help.”
Bennett had yet to participate in 11-on-11 work, only doing 7-on-7 drills in the first two days of OTAs. Still, he remains patient and has two nearby teammates he can lean on as he continues to learn.
“Right now, I don’t know enough to know yet,” Bennett said, when asked if any particular part of the transition from college to the NFL had been difficult. “I can just tell you it’s fast. I don’t have an 11v11 rep yet, but these linemen are coming. And just the timing on 7v7, the hashes are a little bit different, so that makes a shorter throw towards the field, but a longer throw towards the boundary, which is something. And the roads are a little deeper here. I’m patient with that. I don’t want to tell me what something is now, when I don’t know what it is yet. I’m just trying to keep going, learning every day and improving my mastery of the basics.”
