Through luck or design, 49ers may have winner in Shanahan
The 49ers’ long search for a savior appears to be settled, although depending on the outcome of Sunday’s NFC Championship Game, Kyle Shanahan has either three or 17 days to change his mind and pull his name out of contention.
Which, in case you hadn’t noticed, has been a thing for the 49ers.
If Shanahan bails, the 49ers will have to resort to Plan X.
If he doesn’t, the 49ers could be hiring a very impressive offensive mind as a head coach. Despite their circuitous route, and the backward process, they might have ended up with the best head-coaching candidate. That doesn’t mean their issues will be fixed. Reports say that because of the 49ers’ increasing desperation, as candidates have continued to drop out of the process, Shanahan has gained more and more leverage. Now, according to national reports, Shanahan is positioned to become the highest-paid first-time head coach, to have
final say on the roster and in the draft and to have influence over who will be general manager.
Good for Shanahan. Good for the 49ers? That remains to be seen.
Shanahan is 37. This will be his first head-coaching gig at any level. As recently as a year ago, he was not considered a red-hot candidate. In fact, he was viewed negatively at some of his previous stops, saddled with the reputation as a difficult personality.
But his play-calling skill, combined with a dazzling Atlanta roster — and some newfound maturity, according to those who know him — changed his status and the trajectory of his career.
On Thursday, he was named the league’s assistant coach of the year. And the Falcons apparently told their players he would be heading to the 49ers. So it looks like the 49ers have landed a smart young leader.
But, despite a laudable hire, the 49ers might be creating a no-win situation for themselves. Aside from Bill Belichick, it is extremely rare for a head coach to be successful as the ultimate personnel decision-maker. Shanahan’s father, Mike, failed at it, as have successful head coaches such as Mike Holmgren.
The 49ers had that weird setup as part of their failed past, when head coach Mike Nolan and executive Scot McCloughan wrestled over “the trigger” and had an awkward news conference in which the right to make personnel decisions was passed between them. Nolan was not a successful coach and certainly couldn’t do both jobs. Few can.
Will the best remaining candidates for general manager be willing to work with such restrictions? Answering to a 37year-old who has no experience running an operation? That’s a tough sell.
Perhaps Shanahan will have learned from his father. Though there are no reports that Mike Shanahan will join the 49ers, it wouldn’t be a bad idea. Regardless, Dad would be a worthwhile sounding board even in an unofficial capacity.
The 49ers desperately need another adult in the room, and Mike Shanahan could be that person. He has close ties to many of the 49ers’ greats, like Steve Young. Many old 49ers remember 15-year old Kyle running on their practice field when his father was the team’s offensive coordinator. A link to the past — even a tenuous one — to what the 49ers once meant, is only a good thing.
Awarding Kyle Shanahan loads of power possibly would neutralize the influence of CEO Jed York and his right hand man, Paraag Marathe. According to a report by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, Marathe’s presence in interviews and undefined influence has been a huge turnoff for many of the candidates. One of those was, reportedly, New England assistant coach Josh McDaniels, who was the 49ers’ first choice until he withdrew.
Here’s what Florio wrote: “Put simply, Marathe has influence, along with the ear of ownership. He’s been there for 16 years and he has transcended the bubble of accountability in which coaches and general managers reside. And that’s precisely the kind of dynamic coaches and general managers try to avoid.”
In other words, York — despite his words to the contrary — still hasn’t learned from his mistakes. He has conducted this search the way he has others, only without any type of football presence in the room.
The outcome of this process is pretty predictable for a team that didn’t go into it with a clear strategy. Whoever ended up as the last person standing — coach or general-manager candidate — was going to gain more control than that person probably deserved on paper.
Even if the 49ers have gotten the right man, they might have set up an untenable structure. Kyle Shanahan will be all right; he’s a young man on his way up in the business and has at least one failure to spare. It’s no-lose for him. He’ll be rich, he’ll have experience and, if he fails, it will be seen as the fault of the 49ers’ broken organization.
The 49ers, on the other hand, can’t afford another flop.