There are several questions 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan must answer correctly in 2023. Let’s get right into it.
1.) Can he keep his starting quarterback healthy?
Everything starts here.
San Francisco goes into this season with one of the best rosters in the league. That likely won’t matter if Shanahan can’t keep his quarterback healthy. Four of the last five Super Bowls have been won by teams whose quarterback started every game.
The 49ers have started the same quarterback for every game during a season only once in Shanahan’s six seasons, Jimmy Garoppolo in 2019 when the team last reached the big game.
Shanahan’s squad is coming off a season which saw them lose all three starting quarterbacks along with backup Josh Johnson. Shanahan’s scheme played a role in each of the injuries.
2.) Can he win the big game?
When people hear the name Andy Reid, they see Super Bowl championships and offense.
It wasn’t always that way. As head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, Reid lost in the NFC championship game four times along with a Super Bowl in nine trips to the playoffs. The postseason losing continued for Reid during his first six seasons in Kansas City.
Kyle Shanahan has reached at least the NFC championship game in four of the last seven seasons as an offensive coordinator or head coach. In three of those his team entered the fourth quarter with a double-digit lead only to end up on the losing side.
If Shanahan is to pull it off this year, he will need to find a way to keep his quarterback healthy.
3.) Can he manage the game?
A common theme runs through Kyle Shanahan’s biggest losses, mismanaging the game with overaggressive play calling. In both of his Super Bowl losses Shanahan got away from the run in key moments.
As the offensive coordinator with Atlanta in 2016, Shanahan’s Falcons offense found itself in field goal range while clinging to an eight point lead with less than four minutes remaining. Instead of running the ball and forcing Bill Belichick to decide if he wanted to use his timeouts, Shanahan called three consecutive passing plays. Instead of kicking a field goal to go up 11 the Falcons were forced to punt, and Tom Brady went on to complete the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history.
In 2019, Shanahan again found himself up late in the Super Bowl. And once again he got overaggressive.
A 49ers team which had run over Minnesota and Green Bay, suddenly decided it was time to get away from what it did best. Consecutive possessions saw more passes than running plays. This played right into the Chiefs hands and the offense was shut down.
Now trailing by four, the 49ers opened their next possession with a 17-yard run over right tackle. Despite getting across midfield, the next six plays were all passes ending with a fourth down sack of Jimmy Garoppolo. That was the ballgame.
The over aggressiveness of Shanahan showed up twice in the first half of the NFC championship game against Philadelphia last year.
First with the play call mentioned earlier which resulted in the injury of Brock Purdy. This was a game which was going to take patience and consistency to win. Instead, Shanahan tried to throw a haymaker shortly after the opening bell and was dropped.
The knockout blow came when Shanahan decided to run a two-minute offense with fourth string quarterback Josh Johnson instead of running out the clock and regrouping at halftime. On the second play of the possession Johnson mishandled the snap, and the fumble was recovered by Philadelphia. The Eagles scored a few plays later, and the game was effectively over.
Jack, all good points.
Do you believe that Shanahan may be exhibiting a sense of grandiose in finishing a SB game with a Big Play in order to put his mark on the win?
Unfortunately, his last two SB appearances seem to support that line of thought.
This mentality reminds me of Carroll’s ridiculous pass attempt in the waning moments of his last SB loss. Handing the
ball to Lynch would have likely cinched the win.
My only hope is that if Shanahan gets another SB opportunity, he doesn’t try to get fancy with the game on the line.
One of the best articles about Shanahan that I’ve ever read. Nice work!!
Jack,
I pretty much agree with the vast majority of this post. Where I disagree with you is at the bottom of your third point. The play where Purdy got hurt wasn’t an early game “haymaker, it was just a pass call that the team didn’t execute. The game was over at that point JJ wasn’t going to lead the team to a NFCCG championship against that Eagle D. Also JJ not being able to handle a snap wasn’t KS fault, he could have just as easily fumbled a hand off.
Coach,
“The play where Purdy got hurt wasn’t an early game ‘haymaker'”
Sure it was. They were looking for a big play. Listen to what the players and coach say and it’s basically, “this play was going to be a touchdown.”
Your first two points are: can he keep his QB healthy and can he win the big game, which you boil down to: can he keep his QB healthy. Blaming Shanahan for QB health is a little (OK, a lot) strained. With the exception of using Trey as a FB, I don’t think you can lay JG’s fragility, Trey’s broken finger or freak ankle at Kyle’s feet. Nor is it his fault that a missed block and Brock holding the ball too long lead to the NFCCG fiasco.
Likewise, I don’t think your 3rd point is valid either. The Falcons lost because the D couldn’t stop Brady, which explains Kyle’s aggressiveness. Likewise, if we could have done to the Chiefs what we did to the Packers in 2019, don’t you think he would have. Kyle will always choose run over pass if its working. Go re-watch the SB game. The Chiefs shut down the run in the second half and there wasn’t much choice. If Sanders hadn’t been held …
Valid point, all. But I still think that there was bad official calls that went the Chiefs way. Even if Shanahan made the right calls that could have sealed our would-be victory, they wanted Andy Reed and Patrick Mahomes to have that. But Kyle to me is almost better than Jim Harbaugh because Jim had an abrasive knack for rubbing people the wrong way. Except in Michigan. But for being a great coach, Kyle is up there with Bill Walsh.
No body mentions who the defense really didn’t show up to any of those contests…
Finally, finally on this blog, there is recognition, exposure of KS’s serious shortcomings as a
head coach and why he can’t, won’t win a Super Bowl with the 49ers. And, please, let’s stop
this nonsense of equating the hapless Kyle with the brilliant Bill Walsh.
49ers,
You are right KS is no Bill Walsh then again neither is any one else. Is he “hapless”? No, he took the worst team in football and made them a consistent winner. He reminds me of Andy Reid early in his career. Hopefully it won’t take him quite as long to win the final game of the season. As long as he gives me consistently entertaining sundays I will be happy, not as happy as I could be but pretty damn happy.
You nailed it. KS is a known quantity at this point and any one who thinks a leapord can change its spots is fooling themselves. He is a loser plain and simple!
Bay,
Just like Andy Reid a big time loser. Oh wait a minute I guess a leopard can change his spots.
Bay,
Sometimes, I don’t know if you’re serious or just pulling strings.
It’s quite a reach to call Shanahan a loser, isn’t it?
Do you know how many star players that played for the 49ers 2016 team came over to the Shanahan lead 2017 team?
Only 3 come to mind. Joe Staley, D. Buckner and Jimmie Ward.
I believe it’s safe to say that Shanahan and Lynch (as 1st time HC and GM) built a broken 49ers team bereft of talent from the ground up. Getting the 49ers to the Superbowl in his third year and subsequent playoffs does in NO WAY make Shanahan a loser.
So, I’m thinking that you are kidding, right?
Very good analysis Jack.
The problem with KS is that he tries to outsmart the opponent (and himself).
When everybody expects a run, he’ll pass and vice versa. He goes against common wisdom and does the opposite of what’s expected in order to surprise the opponent.
If it works, he’s the genius he wants to be.
I hope he learned his lesson (doubt it) and can control his urges to be clever this season.
Great coaches are conservative but clever when it is appropriate.
Problem is players need to make plays. Sooner or later a player will step up and make a play in crunch time. Brady did it, Mahomes did it, Jones did it, Hill did it, Montana did it. Ronnie Lott did it, Buckner almost did it, Jimmy G almost did it, Tart almost did it, Brodie almost did it, That’s what “Just Do It” is all about. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.
Go Niners!
Four of the last five Super Bowls have been won by teams whose quarterback started every game.
The 49ers have started the same quarterback for every game during a season only once in Shanahan’s six seasons,
Shanahan’s squad is coming off a season which saw them lose all three starting quarterbacks along with backup Josh Johnson. Shanahan’s scheme played a role in each of the injuries.
Trent Williams – Hall of Famer
Aaron Banks – Coming off a decent year. Probably a bit better than average overall.
Jake Brendel – Bad center that people like for some reason. Not a good player.
Spencer Burford – Had a bad rookie season. Will he get better in year 2?
Colton Mckivitz – Practice Squad player. Not an NFL caliber tackle.
Sure Shanahan’s scheme played a role in getting 3 QBs injured last year. The Trey Lance QB Dive plays pretty much guaranteed Trey Lance would never finish the season. But his (and Lynch’s) abject failure at fielding a quality offensive line also plays a role in getting his QBs injured. Shanahan’s scheme helps hide poor play on the O-line but those roster deficiencies always catch up to you eventually. That is why Shanahan will continue to lose QBs every year due to injury. The proof is there over 6 years.
Niner Faithful. I may have overstated myself when I said that Kyle Shanahan was as good as Bill Walsh. Maybe he’s not but he’s still good enough.he just needs to learn how to finish games without blowing leads in the most critical of games like Super bowls. Kyle is better than these coaches that were absolute garbage; Dennis Erickson, Chip Kelly, our former DL coach ( I forgot his name ). Steve Mariuci was a good coach but he got too conservative. Maybe he needs to take some more advice from his Dad Mike, who won two Super bowls.
I almost forgot to say, when the Coach calls a play, it’s up to them to execute those plays without messing it up, like running the wrong routes, or getting stupid penalties, or dropping catchable balls. The Coach is not physically out on the field. So it’s not Kyle’s fault if the players mess up.
I’m not buying most of what in this post.
1. Can he keep his quarterbacks healthy? He ran plays that are common in football. It’s the players on the field who determine none outcome – not the coach. Are there any plays that totally eliminate a quarterback from getting hurt? I don’t think so.
2. Can he win the big game? What a joke of a question. There are 53 of the worlds best players on the field. Why do you suggest it’s the coaches fault. When his teams have lost leads in the 4th quarter you automatically go to Shanahan’s play calling but it was the defense that gave up all those scores.
3. Can he manage the game? Another joke of a question. It’s a team sport and players are the only ones on the field. Any idiot (even me) can in hindsight, look at an unsuccessful play and try to place blame, but it seems you only blame the coach.
Unless I can see egregious errors that should be obvious to anyone, tend not to place blame and just accept the fact that the team lost. Not an individual player or coach, but the team. As a famous Michigan coach once said. The team, the team, the team.