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49ers playbook, Week 10: How the 49ers beat Cover 4 with the Mills Concept

The San Francisco 49ers brought in wide receiver Marquise Goodwin to be the speed guy in head coach Kyle Shanahan’s explosive offense.

Before Sunday’s 83-yard touchdown reception, he previously had deep receptions of 50, 51, 48 and 55 yards in various games this season. His primary usage has been on deep passing concepts such as the Yankee Concept.

On Sunday against the New York Giants, facing a 3rd-and-8 from the 49ers’ own 17-yard line, Shanahan dialed up another intermediate-to-deep passing concept for Goodwin, the “post-in” concept, known throughout the rest of the football world as the Mills Concept:

The Mills Concept, as it is known today, was popularized by Steve Spurrier as far back as 1990 when Ernie Mills was a young college wide receiver at the University of Florida.