Is Kyle Shanahan a top head coach in the NFL for the San Francisco 49ers, or he closer to those of the "overrated" category?
After suffering his fourth season of 10 or more losses last season in a miserable 6-11 campaign, though, the 49ers' head coach's influence in the league is changing. Even if not everyone is on board.
NBC's Patrick Daugherty recently ranked Kyle Shanahan the fourth-best head coach in the NFL after Andy Reid, Sean McVay and John Harbaugh and ahead of Nick Sirianni, Jim Harbaugh, Dan Campbell, Mike Tomlin and Sean McDermott.
"Kyle Shanahan lost 10 games for the fourth time in eight years as head coach last season," writes Daugherty. "Yes, that’s easier to do now with the 17-game schedule, but Shanahan’s first three double-digit loss totals came under the old 16-game format, while he got there with a game to spare last year. Bill Belichick also had four 10-loss campaigns … in 29 seasons. Andy Reid has had two in 26.
"There’s a natural volatility to Shanahan’s game because he is the game. This offense, and by extension team, lives and dies with Shanahan’s play calling, and in years where the 49ers are banged up, there are suddenly too many replacement-level players trying to execute the highest-level scheme. The 49ers stayed healthy in 2023 and made the Super Bowl. They got injury walloped in 2024 and made the draft lottery. It really is that simple."
It's fair to chalk of some, if not all of Shanahan's struggles last season to injuries. The team lost many key players including most of their offense's star power for the season.
Is it fair to put him above a Super Bowl winning coach like Sirianni? What about coaches that actually led their teams to the playoffs in Harbaugh and McDermott?
Shanahan's legacy in the NFL is complicated what with three Super Bowl losses as a coach (two as a head coach and one as a coordinator).
Getting a top-five rating amongst his peers, though, seems a bit of a stretch.
