What Lessons Will Shanahan Learn?

You're either winning, or you're learning. So let's learn some things.

It’s been a lost season for the 49ers, and a LOT of it has to do with injuries. And yes, EVERY team in the league has suffered a lot of those but for the 49ers, it’s been at critical spots and with starters. This list from Reddit - which is already incomplete and out-of-date - details the litany of serious injuries the team has faced.

When you don’t have your two best offensive players - Christian McCaffrey and Trent Williams - and your #1 WR plays four games, and you lose your defensive tackle (Javon Hargrave) for the season, your stud pass rusher (Nick Bosa) for multiple games, the heart of your interior defense (Dre Greenlaw, and a hobbled Fred Warner), and the list could easily go on … it’s going to be TOUGH.

The lack of success has caused some fans to call for coach Kyle Shanahan’s head (as well as calls to not sign QB Brock Purdy to the long-term deal he completely has earned) … and those fans can go pound sand, cause Shanahan and Purdy are the future of this team.

But…that doesn’t mean they can’t make changes going forward. Purdy has shown that - despite playing college ball in Iowa - he has struggled in bad, cold weather. He’s been a bit more careless with the football this year, and those have tended to be at critical times in the game. To me, these are eminently correctable problems, and I have zero issues with the teams plans to extend Purdy to a long-term, market level contract.

Where I think there are other areas for improvement come to how the team is run, both on and off the field.

The buck stops with Kyle, so let’s focus there - he’s an offensive genius, that is indisputable. But he differs from coaches like Sean McVay, Mike Tomlin, Andy Reid and even Matt LaFleur in the sense that you don’t get a sense that he’s a true TEAM leader in the clubhouse, etc. I suspect he’s pretty good at it, but the guys I just mentioned are in their own stratosphere for that kind of coaching. What he needs to do is find a better answer at Defensive Coordinator AND, almost as critically, Special Teams Coordinator. The latter has been an absolute disgrace not just this season but in seasons past. There are multiple games where it’s been the difference between a win and a loss - other teams take it vitally seriously, and Shanahan just doesn’t seem to - except to be upset when the unit fails.

This manifests itself off the field as well - the team seems allergic to using high draft picks on the offensive line (perhaps having a $50,000,000 QB behind that line will change that) - despite using one of their earliest picks on an OT in Mike McGlinchey. Given Williams age, one could make a serious claim that the team needs at least three new offensive linemen this offseason - another tackle, guard and for sure a center.

Oddly, the team seems to think it can solve its special teams problems by doing something almost no other team does - drafting specialists with relatively high draft picks. They used a fourth round pick a few years ago on punter Mitch Wishnowsky, and more recently a third round pick on kicker Jake Moody. Both would love to be league average at their positions. Moody is legitimately not good.

I want to be as clear as possible - it’s arrogant as hell to use precious draft picks on players where the majority of the league signs undrafted free agents to these slots. As evidence? When Moody was out mid-season, the guys they signed to replace him were clearly, markedly better than he has been. But he got his job back because it’s his job. For now. (Shanahan’s postgame remarks after the loss to Miami was the first time he sounded as upset with Jake Moody as everyone else has been. I’d be shocked if he doesn’t at least face competition this off-season, and not that shocked if he’s just cut.)

It’s a waste of draft capital to try and buy a special teams unit (and this ignores all the other players who are critical to it). Instead of drafting specialists, there are developmental players on both lines, the defensive backfield, etc., at the very least all over the place in those rounds. These are critical to depth and, you guessed it, the special teams unit.

The team is poised to have its highest draft position in at least four years - they have had some good success in the draft (last year, they found starters at WR, CB, S, OG and perhaps elsewhere, a huge plus), but they need desperately to fortify the lines. Their free agent budget simply won’t be much, because they need to extend Purdy, and re-sign starters like Dre Greenlaw and Talaona Hufunga. They have some pieces, but the clock is ticking, and that window is shrinking.

Will they learn the right lessons from this season?