Fire Kyle Shanahan
There is the stink of death around Kyle Shanahan. Not literal death. Coaching death.
I’ve smelled that death dozens of times, the death when a coach or manager runs out of ideas, or insists his ideas win games when they don’t anymore. Dying coaches lose their teams – as Shanahan is losing his in plain sight.
Death stinks.
I am amazed that many good people who write or talk about the 49ers for a living can’t or won’t smell the stink around Shanahan. After the 49ers lost to the awful Seahawks on Sunday, a shameful loss, another fourth-quarter blown lead, a loss just about everyone blamed on the offense, well after all that hardly anyone blamed the head coach who everyone knows runs the offense.
It’s like the loss happened to him, like he was a mere victim of unforeseen circumstances or of players who were not up to his exalted standard. Give me a break.
He committed so many football sins on offense against Seattle. He barely played his best running back Jordan Mason and insisted on rushing poor hurt Christian McCaffrey again and again even though the inferior Seahawks linemen swatted McCaffrey down like a giant prawn. If Shanahan uses Mason more, the Niners win the game.
Shanahan left Brock Purdy on his own to deal with blitzes and there was the quarterback running for his life. In fact, Purdy was just about the only player on offense who had life, along with Jauan Jennings. They don’t smell of death like their coach.
But with Shanahan it’s more than a strategic error here or there. It’s his entire approach. It’s his stubborn arrogance and his refusal to learn or change. The league is onto him and all his acolyte coaches around the league, onto them and their system. The defenses have seen Shanahan’s offense and know how to beat it. I mean only 17 points against a bad bad Seattle defense, two godforsaken touchdowns. Come on. When they played the Seahawks in Seattle the 49ers scored 36 points. The 49ers can’t do that anymore. And please don’t plead injuries. All teams have injuries. The 49ers have enough high-priced, allegedly good offensive players to beat the Seahawks, a team going nowhere.
After the game, Shanahan showed up for the postgame news conference quicker than usual. He wanted to get it over with. In my interpretation, he was heartsick and didn’t want to answer questions, wanted to be with himself at his own personal wake. Because this season is over. The 49ers are not a Super Bowl team. Cue the laugh track. They may not even be a playoff team. Not with Green Bay, Buffalo and Detroit on the schedule.
Shanahan is confused. I believe this. Things that should work, that used to work no longer work. And he doesn’t know why. That’s the mark of a coach’s death. The not knowing why.
The 49ers need to fire him after this season, as they parted ways with Jim Harbaugh after his final mediocre 49ers season. The 49ers need a man with new ideas, a man better able to relate to flesh and blood people. Real people. Shanahan is a computer program who spits out plays, a robot glued to his play sheet. He has no feel for the interpersonal moment. Remember him hosting a party the day Ricky Pearsall got shot. Good Lord. FYI, Shanahan called zero passes for Pearsall on Sunday.
But here’s the question. Will the Yorks fire Shanahan?
Do they have the nerve? Do they have the foresight? Do they have the wisdom? Will they eat his salary? Will they do what’s best for the team? Do they even know what’s best for the team?
They should call in Shanahan and say his job is on the line, he is likely to be fired, but there’s a minimal chance he can survive if his team shows some life, wins a few games it shouldn’t win – like against the Lions.
Otherwise, this coach needs to go away. And please take your smell with you.
Beware of what you wish for. In pro sports, the performance drop-off of stars is precipitous, once it starts. The Niners have exactly one offensive lineman who will be on this squad two years from now. This is critical because Purdy’s major flaw is tipped balls, due to his height, and a better OL is the only cure. They really have only two decent receivers, Kittle and Jennings. And this is problematic because their physical style and Kittle’s age make their availability always questionable. That Pearsall could get no separation yesterday tells me he’s a bust in the same vein as JJ Stokes, he will play a few years but will never star. What we have is a remake of the Mariucci “watchability” era of Garcia, Owens, Hanks, etc. Would you prefer unwatchable 49ers, which you have also experienced? Shanahan has not lost the locker room. They are simply getting beat by younger, very comparable squads.
You, Grant and Damon Bruce are the only local media holding Shanahan accountable for the dismal state of the 49ers and the regression of Brock Purdy. Yesterday Matt Maiocco took a daring leap and suggested Kyle’s tush could start to get warm, but everyone else is deathly afraid to even mildly criticize him. It’s gotten to the point that I no longer read or listen to the local coverage. And with the announced move of KNBR’s studios to Levi Stadium, don’t expect anything but honey dripping off the tongues of their radio “personalities” or analysts.