Shanahan, Lynch get contract extensions
Off to a 3-0 start in their seventh season together, coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch are also the proud owners of contract extensions.
The 49ers announced Friday they've extended the pair once again. Shanahan and Lynch are currently working under contracts they got in the summer of 2020 after reaching the Super Bowl.
Terms were not announced other than they are “multi-year” extensions, according to a team press release, which was issued some 30 minutes after Shanahan concluded a media conference call to discuss Thursday night's 30-12, home-opening win over the New York Giants.
Winning a 13th straight regular-season game has the 49ers two shy of their franchise record. It's the longest active streak in the NFL. And never mind that it skips over their NFC Championship Game disaster in Philadelphia.
Are they in the same groove as last season, or specifically when they won 10 consecutive games before entering the playoffs?
“I feel like we're close. We finished last season on a roll. We got in a groove,” Shanahan said. “I don't think we're totally there yet. We can clean a number of things up.”
Shanahan, 43, is already one of the longest-tenured coaches in 49ers' history, ranking fifth behindy Bill Walsh (1979-87), Buck Shaw (1946-54), Dick Nolan (196875) and George Seifert (1989-96).
Shanahan is 55-46 in regularseason action, including a 45-24 record after his first two seasons. His six playoff wins trail only the 10 apiece by Walsh and Seifert, both of whom delivered Super Bowl wins, the last of which came 29 years ago in the 1994 season.
In June 2020, Shanahan received an extension that ran through 2025, although an option is believed to have existed for 2026. A month after Shanahan's deal, Lynch was extended through 2025. Last year, their successful partnership was threat
ened when Amazon's Prime Video tried to lure Lynch back into the broadcast booth. Lynch, 51, had worked as a Fox Sports announcer after his Pro Football Hall of Fame career ended in 2008.
Neither Lynch nor Shanahan was made available for comment on Friday's news, though they had addressed the state of the franchise when training camp opened two months ago.
“We're a team that has a chance with the way we're constructed, the way we're coached, the character in that locker room, the talent in that locker room,” Lynch said. “Now it's our players' jobs to take that ownership. It's all of our jobs to give it our best shot.
We do have a chance and I think we have a really good one. I like this group as it's constructed and there's a lot to like. Now we have to go do it.”
Added Shanahan, on July 25: “Really since Year 3 (in 2019), I felt we've been in that (championship-contention) position every year, and we feel no different this year.” HEALTH UPDATES >> Wide receiver Deebo Samuel did not fracture any ribs on a fourth-quarter, 19-yard catch-and-run, Shanahan said. Samuel returned that same drive and finished it with a 27-yard touchdown catch for the 30-12 final margin.
The only other injuries Shanahan reported were low-ankle sprains to linebackers Dre Greenlaw and Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles. Those injuries, along with Samuel's, are “day-to-day” issues.