Kyle Shanahan’s Football Sins
Kyle Shanahan has committed multiple football sins this season, but today I want to concentrate on one. Stubbornness.
To be stubborn is not traditionally considered a sin – see the Ten Commandments – but in football it’s a doozy. Here are two examples from Shanahan’s current oeuvre.
You can see his sin of stubbornness in the way he uses Christian McCaffrey. The guy had serious issues with his Achilles tendons, even jetted his way to Germany to get them fixed, missed just about all of training camp and the beginning of this season. But when he was finally ready to play, Shanahan used him like he’d never missed a day, rushes him many (too many) times a game.
The result? McCaffrey can’t run, certainly not like he used to. He gets swatted down at the line of scrimmage. He’s a liability. Of course, there’s another running back on the team, a very good running back named Jordan Mason. Mason was one of the leading backs in the NFL before McCaffrey came back. Now Kyle has put Mason in the storage room.
Stubborn.
Because of his continuing sin, Shanahan has ruined the running game on a team that desperately needs one. He’s damaged McCaffrey’s confidence – anyone who saw McCaffrey staring into space at his locker in Green Bay knew the guy was staring at territory unknown, a very frightening territory – like will I ever be myself again?
And Kyle also has damaged Mason’s confidence by casting him aside like a used Kleenex.
This is coaching? At the very least, Shanahan should use them together and take that Juice guy off the field. Using McCaffrey and Mason in the same backfield would be creative. Is Kyle Shanahan still creative?
And then there’s the sin of Deebo Samuel who used to be a dynamic player but has passed his sell-by date. Kyle insists on throwing passes to him, although he often drops the passes. Like the one against Green Bay that went through Samuels’ hands and got intercepted.
Shanahan should have made Samuel the third receiver and started first-round pick Ricky Pearsall in his place, Pearsall who hasn’t seen a pass thrown his way the past two games. But Kyle didn’t do that because he’s stubborn, won’t deviate from his narrow preconceptions, won’t learn.
Here’s what’s so bad about Kyle’s sin of stubbornness. A football team is a meritocracy. The best guys play. When it’s otherwise – like on the Niners – the players notice and the culture, best man up, goes to hell.
You are witnessing the going to hell of the 49ers culture and in this scenario, Kyle Shanahan is the prime mover.
Hi Lowell,
Saw your show with Grant and how you both elaborated on his sins since the Super Bowl loss. I agree, Kyle's stubborness is his greatest down fall. His inability to learn and insistance on relying on his 'system' to provide all the answers, yet, it does not have any this year.
Kyle is just a system coach, he builds a system and insists on it to the detriment to his whole team. He is not a leader, he makes confounding decisions that makes him look like he strives to be 'one of the boys'. This is not a coach/leader. A leader leads the team and not try to be a member of the team. Unfortunately, I dont see him changing despite all signs pointing to the necessity of evolving.
I do think that stubborness is a 'sin' - it has it's roots in pride of the seven deadly sins. He is too proud of his system and the way he approaches coaching, too proud of his 'genius' to listen to others, too proud to be open to change. This goes to show why pride has always been the deadliest of the seven deadly sins.
Much respect,
Phil
Hi Lowell,
I love your writing and your perspective. I have felt for some time that Kyle shows elements of a narcissistic personity. (not that other coaches don't also) The stubborness you write about is certainly a hallmark characteristic of that type of person. Inability to learn from mistakes, vindictiveness, blaming others when things go wrong and, perhaps worst of all, playing favorites beyond all sense of logic.
As we are all coming to understand from our current political crisis, narcissists tend to destroy the very things they covet the most. Sadly, this team is finally revealing the truth of that statement. I suppose it is probably somewhat pathological to expect a football team to provide a sense of joy in ones life, but being an ardent 49er fan going on 45 years I certainly am deriving no joy in watching this team melt down.
We need a better, emotionally more stable and generously supportive head coach. Time for a change.