Why Shanahan’s contract is big deal
The 49ers have stalled in extending successful coaches’ contracts for years, but not this time
A lot of things are unsettled in the world of sports, but one thing is stable and will be for the foreseeable future. The 49ers head coach. On one hand, the 49ers’ extension of Kyle Shanahan’s contract for six years, taking him through 2025, as announced earlier this week, is a nobrainer.
Shanahan took over a disaster in 2017, rebuilt the 49ers into a Super Bowl team in three years, was relatively underpaid by NFL head coaching standards, is only 40 years old and is one of the best offensive minds in a game that demands offensive innovation. So, yeah. Duh. But on the other hand, this is the 49ers. The team that had screwed up its coaching situation for more than 20 years, ever since George Seifert was forced out. Prior to hiring Shanahan, Jed York had blown through three coaches in three years. Prior to giving Shanahan an extension, the last coach the York family had extended was Steve Mariucci, in 1999. And we know what happened to Mooch.
Since then, the coaches that were not worthy of extending have included Dennis Erickson, Mike Nolan, Mike Singletary, Jim Tomsula, Jim Harbaugh, Tomsula again, and Chip Kelly.
It was the lack of a contract extension that turned the marriage with Harbaugh increasingly ugly after the 49ers made it to the Super
Bowl in early 2013. Harbaugh lasted two more seasons before he was shown the door.
So, give York credit for learning. Took a while, but he learned.
Since there was no news conference announcing the new deal, which was reportedly agreed to several weeks ago, we can take York’s own words from earlier this year as to why he thinks Shanahan is worth the commitment.
“I think I’m still paying like three coaches,” York said in an impromptu interview before the team left for the Super Bowl. “If we’re going to pay a coach, may as well pay the same one for six years.”
Now it will be a total of at least nine years. Shanahan isn’t just a good coach, he’s a refreshing member of the NFL coaching group.
He is honest to a fault in a club famous for halftruths and lies. He has a female assistant coach on his staff and doesn’t act like it’s a big deal. He doesn’t shy away from tough topics, but instead speaks from the heart.
In early June, he held an impassioned Zoom call with writers and said more about issues of race in America than the NFL as a league had honestly said in years. He talked about his own white privilege and the fear African Americans have to live with.
“I think white people are listening more than I’ve ever heard before, which is good,” Shanahan said. “That’s the starting point, because this has happened too long. … I don’t want to debate it anymore. Open your eyes.”
This wasn’t a new conversation for Shanahan. He said similar things during his first training camp as a head coach, when the Charlottesville, Va., white nationalist rallies were happening. More than any other coach, the rookie stood up against what he was seeing.
Shanahan came to the 49ers with an unfair reputation as a somewhat arrogant, entitled son of a famous coach. He has turned out to be anything but. The billing he has lived up to instead is of being one of the best young coaches in the game. And the 49ers want to make sure he’s theirs for the longterm.
“I didn’t want anyone questioning, ‘Well, it’s Year 3 and they’re on the hot seat,’ ” York said back in January, about why he originally gave Shanahan and John Lynch sixyear contracts.
In that interview, York talked about wading through a nasty river, like Andy Dufresne in “The Shawshank Redemption,” to get to the beach. He wanted to go through the muck with Shanahan and Lynch and there they were on the shores of the Super Bowl. He talked about how much easier Lynch and Shanahan had made his job, about how the two men were totally in sync with each other.
Because Shanahan and Lynch have always been treated as a tandem, as York did through that entire January interview, it’s a bit surprising that the two men have been unlinked in contract extensions. They came in with identical sixyear contracts and the assumption was that team wants to extend both of them.
Some are trying to read the tea leaves, to determine if this means something bigger about Lynch’s status.
More likely is the premise set forth by some 49ers beat writers, that Lynch is already among the most highly paid general managers, while Shanahan’s salary had already been eclipsed by less accomplished head coaches in the accelerating pay structure. He is now reportedly in the top five of NFL coaches.
This separation seems unlikely to create a rift, like the one caused when Trent Baalke was extended but not Harbaugh.
“Their strengths complement one another,” York said in January. “I think that’s important. Neither one is trying to elbow the other to get to the front of the line, saying, ‘I’m the executive of the year, I’m the coach of the year.’ They’re happy for the other one. They’re happy for everybody’s success. … It’s awesome.”
And awesome to have Shanahan tied up.
But it is so unlike the 49ers of the past two decades; even a nobrainer decision seems a little shocking.