CAPTAIN SANTA CLARA: These days, Kyle Shanahan’s cell phone is a vital component of the NFL’s offseason center, symbolizing the 49ers’ heightened standing and the boldness of their leader.
Who else would have asked Bill Belichick whether he would be interested in joining the 49ers staff, possibly as defensive coordinator, following three heartbreaking playoff losses in a row last winter?
With Brock Purdy essentially established as the team’s long-term starting quarterback, who else in the NFL would have the guts to call Tom Brady and propose a one-year experiment at quarterback?
It could only have been done by Shanahan. We know this because he attempted to do both. He was unsuccessful in signing either NFL legend, but he moved with the same boldness and confidence that helped Shanahan and general manager John Lynch acquire Christian McCaffrey and Trent Williams, among a few other less successful but still audacious moves. That remains the defining characteristic of this century.
It is never known until you inquire. After Belichick’s incredible tenure with the Patriots ended last season and Shanahan had a position available following the resignation of defensive coordinator Steve Wilks, why not try to sign him? Saying no was the worst thing Belichick could do. And should he accept?
“I threw it out to him,” Shanahan told me as we sat in his office for my podcast Tuesday. “He loves football so much that you never know what he would want. I can’t believe that he’s not a head coach of a team right now. I know what I would do if I was an owner. So that shocks me and the last thing you want to do is insult someone like Bill Belichick. But I know he just loves ball in the simplest form, so I threw it all out to him, whatever he’d want to do.”
You offered him the defensive-coordinator job, Kyle?
“Yeah, I was like, ‘Would you be interested?’” Shanahan said. “He was very nice and appreciative, but he politely turned me down. I think he’s helping out his son (Steve, the new DC at the University of Washington) a little bit. I know he’s involved in Washington up there and trying to help out with (Washington coach) Jedd Fisch…
“It could be good (that Belichick didn’t take the offer), because I’m sure he’s going to be back in the league next year. And I could be going against him. He could be in the NFC West, so it would’ve sucked if he came here (on staff for one year) and then he was going against us every week. But he’s the best and I just like talking to him.”
Just hours before the first team meeting of the 2024 season and minutes after he and Lynch held their yearly camp-opening press conference, Shanahan narrated all of this from behind his desk in his office. His hair was long, but he had recently shaved off his offseason mustache—which had startled the internet when photos from Christian McCaffrey’s wedding surfaced—because he appeared tan from all the beach days he spent with his family during the NFL break.
Shanahan gave off the impression of a coach who is angry but not depressed by the Chiefs’ overtime loss in the Super Bowl last February and the one in February 2020. Furthermore, Shanahan is content with the squad that he and Lynch have assembled and believes that the 49ers have a great chance of winning this season because a number of their prior iterations were probably competitive enough as well.
“Yeah, I believe that we should have already won two,” Shanahan said. “I actually think we should have won three.”
The logical assumption that Purdy, who had an amazing 2023 season and is over a year removed from his elbow surgery, is the best quarterback Shanahan has ever taught and the best of all time is the foundation of a lot of the present view.
Furthermore, it is clear to anyone who understands Shanahan’s thought process that his attempt to acquire Brady was a show of complete support for Purdy’s positioning. Why? Due to the fact that Brady was departing the Patriots and had called the 49ers to inquire about a potential signing, Shanahan had an even greater chance to sign him in March 2020, several months after Jimmy Garoppolo had led the team to their first Super Bowl defeat. Furthermore, Shanahan declined Brady’s request because he was concerned about the impact on Garoppolo, who had served as Brady’s backup for years in New England.
Unspoken: Shanahan was not as concerned about Purdy’s self-assurance or prospects. Confident players are respected by confident coaches.
“It wasn’t a hard conversation for me with Brock,” Shanahan said of telling him about wanting to sign Brady. “You have to ask (Purdy) about it. It’s not always the best thing you want to hear. But I looked at it as a huge compliment. You know, after the 2019 season, that was Jimmy’s first year as a starter in his career, and he did some really good things. And we almost won a Super Bowl. And he was a young quarterback we had only played with one year.
“To get a call a few weeks after that (from) Tom Brady wanting to come play for us, that was one of the hardest things I’ve ever gone through. Because Tom Brady is the best quarterback to ever play. He’s who I’ve watched since Day 1 of when my career started. And that was kind of a dream of mine. But I also know we had a very young quarterback who had got us that far. And to sit and risk that young quarterback, I just kept thinking, like, what if he comes in at that age (Brady was 42), pulls a hamstring, and now I’ve messed up Jimmy? So it wasn’t a fun decision. But we had to stick with Jimmy at the time. …
“And then watching how it went (with Garoppolo’s injuries and struggles in 2020, and Brady leading Tampa Bay to a Super Bowl victory after the 2021 season), it was tough. And I was like, ‘Man, if I ever had a chance again, that’s something I can’t pass up.”
Purdy was injured then. Although he returned for the start of training camp, there were no guarantees that he would in February and March. Thus, why not give Shanahan the opportunity to allow Brady try to win a Super Bowl while playing for the 49ers with this strong group, and then have Purdy prepared to take over in 2024?
“I felt very good when I told (Purdy), ‘Hey, I know we spent a lot of picks to go get Trey (Lance). I know you’ve only played seven games. You have a bad injury. But we believe you are a guy of the future. The only way that won’t happen is that Tom Brady comes for one year.’ And so I kind of looked at it as I was giving him the keys,” Shanahan said.
“I felt like he should be leaving the room thinking, ‘Man, they believe in me. Like, the only guy he’d even consider is Tom Brady.’ And Tom was done. Once Tom told me that, I just started counting the days to when Brock could get healthy.”
Here are some other highlights from our conversation.
Shanahan stated that experiencing this year’s first offseason without any quarterback drama was unquestionably different. Purdy is in good health. As QB1, he is set. The 49ers worried about this position around 4,000 percent less time.
“Yes, it was different,” Shanahan said. “It’s so much more relaxing when that position is established … It just allows you to focus on all the other stuff. And there’s always a ton of stuff that happens in the offseason. It was needed.”
Shanahan compared the situation to the years he spent coaching two of his favorite QBs: “I did have that with Matt Ryan (in Atlanta) … and with Matt Schaub in Houston, where you had a number of years with a guy where you weren’t looking outside. And when you do have that, it’s the time to take advantage.”
• Would Shanahan be more inclined to throw the ball than the 50-50 run-pass split that Purdy said he is always looking for given his command of the offense and the feeling that he is still developing at the age of 24?
“Well, I think we did,” Shanahan said. “I think you watch even when Brock took over, watch how different it was by the third game he was playing. And still tried to be 50-50. I still tried to do that with Matt Ryan. … I still believe we were a top-five running team. I believe it’s so much easier to be a top-five passing team if you’re a top-five running team. You don’t do the (number of) attempts, but that’s what allows you to play at a high level.
“I will always, no matter our situation, try to be 50-50, because I believe that’s the best way to throw the ball. … I do think at heart I always want to throw the ball. I love throwing the ball. But I’ve coached long enough to know how much you need to run the ball before something bad happens.”
• In light of the fact that Nick Bosa and Deebo Samuel have both stated that protracted negotiations have impacted their performance in the past, and given that Brandon Aiyuk reported to camp on Tuesday afternoon (NBC Sports Bay Area), there is a chance that Aiyuk’s season may be impacted by the ongoing negotiations.
I questioned Shanahan about the 49ers’ concept of holding these discussions so late in camp and whether he ever gets annoyed that they take so long.
“I don’t really look at that as our philosophy,” Shanahan said. “I just look at it situationally. … You look at the Eagles. I think those guys were like two years out (from the end of their contracts) and they felt they were where they wanted with their top-10 pick (Devonta Smith) and they wanted to do that. I love that philosophy.
“We would do that, too, if we felt it was right. I don’t think Bosa was listening, was willing to negotiate, until he did … We would always want to do it earlier. But it just hasn’t worked out that way with the big ones we’ve had. It’s not like we aways say, ‘Let it come down to the end.’ I would much rather it happened earlier. But you can’t always let it happen the way you want.”
• In the first two rounds of the draft since their arrival in 2017, Shanahan and Lynch have only selected two offensive linemen: tackle Mike McGlinchey with the ninth pick in 2018 and guard Aaron Banks with the 48th pick in 2021. The present offensive line seems to be in need of a few high-round selections, especially because it is unclear who will take over for Williams should he decide to retire.
Is it simply their dislike of drafting O-linemen? This is the most comprehensive and lucid explanation Shanahan has provided on the matter:
“I’ve heard the narrative that, you know, that we’re ignoring the O-line. If we felt the O-lineman was the best pick there, there’s no doubt that’s who we’d take. But there’s some O-linemen there at the end of the first round that you feel have just as good a chance as a guy at the end of the second round. One’s a higher prospect and might have a higher ceiling, but I’m not too concerned about the ceiling. I want to know if he’s going to be a starting left tackle, a starting left guard, whatever, a starting NFL player. And if you are a starting NFL lineman, I think we can have a good team with you.
“(But) if we have a bunch of starting NFL linemen (and) there’s no one who can score points, we’re not going to have that good of an offense. It’s weird to me that … I’ve never been on a team that was favored to win every game the whole year before the season started. And we’ve been (listed as) that two years in a row. So what that tells me is people think we’ve got a really good roster. Well, if we were drafting only O-linemen, we wouldn’t have as good of a roster.”
According to Shanahan, the safe NFL approach is to choose offensive lineman in the first round. If you can shuffle off a subpar tackle to guard or any other variation, you do not face criticism. It might be riskier to take defensive linemen or wide receivers. But those are the players who most likely have more to offer in terms of winning games.
“One of the biggest things that drives me crazy throughout my whole career is being at places that just draft O-linemen in the first and second round because no one can really talk about whether they’re big busts or not,” Shanahan said. “We don’t really think that way. We don’t have a philosophy to avoid O-linemen. We just don’t have a philosophy that says we’re always going to build inside-out because you’ve got to establish that for the run game.
“Look at our run game everywhere. Look at our run game in Washington (when Shanahan was the OC under his father, Mike). I mean, we drafted Trent Williams, we had the fourth pick in the draft. … Our left guard was cut from Denver. Our center was a practice-squad player. Our right guard was a free agent that we got from Baltimore. And our right tackle we got off the street. And then our running back was a sixth-round pick. And we rushed for more yards than the Hogs ever did or John Riggins and all those big-time Hall of Fame people. …
“We want O-linemen, don’t get me wrong. But you don’t just get to pick whoever you want. … We have been favored in every game for two years in a row. Our roster is damn good.”
• Does Shanahan find solace in the fact that Andy Reid won two Super Bowls in the next four seasons after failing to win one until his 21st season as head coach? Nope, Shanahan stated, he never gives that much thought. He is merely a coach.
“If I did worry about that stuff, I would never make it that long,” Shanahan said. “And the fact that I don’t makes me believe that I’m going to keep doing what I love doing until someone tells me I’m not. Until no one wants me. And then if I’ve made enough money, I can just go enjoy life after that.”
(Top photo: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
