The offseason is for hypotheticals. Today, we wonder how different Kyle Shanahan’s reputation would be if the Super Bowls had a different result.
The NFL is a team sport. There are three phases in the game. If you are proficient in two of those phases, you’ll unlikely hoist a Lombardi Trophy.
The San Francisco 49ers have twice been on the doorstep of a Super Bowl victory. We can point out one play in both games as the reason, but there are 60-70 plays in a game. Football isn’t decided by one play, regardless of how impactful the result may be.
Quarterbacks miss throws. Defenders miss tackles. Defensive backs don’t always catch the passes in their direction. Offensive linemen miss blocks. Coaches on both sides of the ball don’t always have the perfect call. In the Niners’ case, punt gunners don’t always find the ball.
After a frustrating 2024 campaign, a loud minority is ready to move on from Kyle Shanahan. Some believe eight years is enough, and the Super Bowl window has closed; thus, it’s time to restart.
The Athletic’s Jeff Howe wrote an article centered around the Kansas City Chiefs dynasty and how they’ve fractured franchises along the way. No organization has suffered more from Patrick Mahomes’ greatness than the 49ers.
The overwhelming takeaway from the article was executives around the NFL have not altered their stance on Shanahan. Here’s one excerpt:
“Within the coaches in the league, no one thinks any less of Kyle Shanahan. It’s ludicrous to think they should get rid of him. Reid had these same criticisms early in his career, and now he’s clearly in the conversation for best coach ever. Kyle Shanahan’s criticisms are that he’s lost a couple of Super Bowls? OK, do you know how hard it is to get to the Super Bowl?
If you throw rocks at Kyle Shanahan and want him fired, he’s going to have a job in 30 seconds. Reid, it was that he couldn’t win the big one, and now he’s on the verge of winning three in a row. Kyle is going to be coaching for a long time. He’s going to have another chapter in his career where he’s going for three (Super Bowls) in a row.”
The only worry is whether the chapter will be with Shanahan’s current team, as Reid didn’t have that experience in his first stint in Philadelphia.
Brock Purdy is poised for an extension. If, after four or five years, Purdy and Shanahan can’t reach the peak of the mountain, then the conversation would make sense.
But Shanahan only needed three years to turn one of the worst rosters in the NFL into a contender. Since 2019, save 2020 and 2024 where attrition got the best of the Niners, San Francisco had an argument for being the best team in the NFL.
Furthermore, the foundation was laid for sustained success. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been questionable decisions, from draft picks to free agent signings to coaching decisions, but you’d be lying to yourself if you thought no other team has gone through the same thing during the previous six seasons.
“Shanahan can’t win the big one” is laughable when you consider his offense, with a quarterback starting in his first full season, held leads in the fourth quarter and overtime.
It’s a team sport. Until the 49ers put the same energy into every phase, they will continue to fall short. Of course, that falls on the head coach. Shanahan understands that, so we’re seeing continuous changes to the personnel and the staff.
It’d be troubling if the 49ers sat on their hands after a six-win season, but that doesn’t mean Shanahan is the one who needs to go.