San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke to the media recently and said he felt the team was not ready to come back last year after the crushing defeat in the Super Bowl. However, he also said that is not the case in 2025.
Shanahan's full response to the question of the team's readiness going into last season versus this season can be viewed below:
He says that he felt players were not ready to come back at OTAs last season fresh off the heels of yet another crushing playoff loss, this time in the Super Bowl.
"When I felt them all come back, I felt like guys weren't ready to come back," Shanahan said. "And I understood that. But I told them how I won't really understand it this year."
This is more than understandable. The team put so much effort into that season and fought so hard to get to a point where they practically had a few fingers on the Lombardi Trophy before it was ripped away yet again.
All of last season had the feel of a team that was still reeling from three straight seasons of bitter playoff heartbreak. Whether conscious or not, it would not be surprising if the collective motivation was just not there for the team last season.
But Shanahan is right to expect that the team is not going to have that same malaise coming into 2025. After how disappointing the 2024 season was with the team not even making the playoffs, this team now has a chip on its shoulder and something to prove which is something that may have been missing going into 2024.
Shanahan noted that he told the guys on the team he wanted to see all of them at the team's first offseason meeting when they got back and that everyone was there. That could be a good sign that guys are back and are hungry again.
Sure, some veterans may be no-shows at OTAs, but the overall vibe of the team is completely different right now compared to last season. There are no dramatic and overwrought contract talks (cough, cough, Brandon Aiyuk) and the team does seem like they are ready to be back out there after last season.
San Francisco really has been boom or bust ever since Shanahan took the reins back in 2017. But with 2024 being a bust year, that could mean the team is due to strike gold in 2025 with a team that has some fresh faces and a renewed desire to go out and prove everyone wrong.
