As we’ve said, firing those two would be ridiculous.
San Francisco 49ers fans calling for sacking general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan might be more disappointed than watching Sunday’s 35-10 loss against the Buffalo Bills.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter said during his appearance on Pat McAfee that he has had “zero indication” the 49ers are going to make any changes at the head coach or front office.
“I mean, I don’t think so,” Shefter said when asked by McAfee if there were worries about anyone in Santa Clara. “I think you’re asking about the head coach or the GM, right? If they wanted to move on from John Lynch or Kyle Shanahan, which I’ve gotten zero indication that they’d want to do.”
We discussed last week how removing either of them would be ill-advised, and even after Sunday’s thumping, there should be little question about their job status.
This is a friendly reminder that Kyle Shanahan built the roster everyone criticizes and then took it to two Super Bowls and three straight NFC Championship games. For 2025, the 49ers are being hit with just about every distraction you can think of: multiple teammates dealing with family tragedies, players unable to stay healthy, defensive growing pains under a new coordinator; you name it, and it sums up the 2025 season.
Is some of this on Shanahan? Yes. A large portion of it is just a lot of bad things happening at the worst possible times. Kyle Shanahan’s teams have flaws, but so does every team in the NFL, yes even the Kansas City Chiefs.
Of course, there’s always the question of the front office, and Schefter has made it pretty clear there isn’t even an eyelash being batted about the job status of their general manager and head coach.
A second year is a given for Shanahan, and dare I say it, if next year is disappointing, you let him stick around anyway. After that, then you start having serious conversations.
Why not fire them now? Well, Shefter said it best:
“How quickly do you think it would be before there was another team that would want to hire both of them?”