Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch have now signed their second round of extensions with the 49ers. The team’s power brokers, who arrived in 2017, finalized new deals Friday.
This comes three years after the pair received their initial extensions. At the time, Lynch was signed through 2024 and Shanahan through 2025. The duo is now inked into at least the late 2020s. The 49ers hovered near the bottom of the NFL when they hired Shanahan and Lynch in 2017, leading to each receiving six-year contracts to lead a rebuild. The second-generation HC and Hall of Fame safety have led the way in reinvigorating the franchise.
When the 49ers handed their HC-GM tandem the previous extensions, the team was coming off a remarkable turnaround — going from 4-12 to Super Bowl LIV. These latest deals come after the 49ers have managed to sustain success despite quarterback unreliability. It is rather impressive the seventh-year decision-makers have secured these re-ups so quickly after the Trey Lance experiment failed. Withstanding that miss illustrates the roster strength the 49ers have built and the play-calling acumen Shanahan has displayed.
Eyeing an upgrade on the injury-prone Jimmy Garoppolo in 2021, the 49ers sent the Dolphins two future first-rounders and a third to climb from No. 12 to No. 3. That move turned into Lance, despite persistent rumors Shanahan initially preferred Mac Jones. But he signed off on Lance. This would ordinarily lead to a significant step back for a franchise, but the 49ers soared to back-to-back NFC championship games despite receiving next to nothing from the handpicked Garoppolo heir apparent.
Had Jaquiski Tartt corralled a room-service INT late in the 2021 NFC title game, the 49ers likely continue their mastery over the Rams and book a Super Bowl LVI berth. But the team overcame that loss to assemble a 12-game win streak last season, doing so after more QB uncertainty engulfed it. The 49ers stunned the football universe by staying on course after going from Garoppolo to Brock Purdy, the last pick in the 2022 draft. Purdy, who made the team as a third-stringer behind Lance and Garoppolo to start last season, still has not lost a regular-season start, improving to 8-0 via Thursday night’s win over the Giants.
Shanahan’s play-calling has undeniably aided Purdy, who quarterbacked the 49ers to playoff wins over the Seahawks and Cowboys, and the duo’s roster-building effort produced a historically rare offense housing four first-team All-Pros. The trade for Christian McCaffrey was out of step with where running back value has gone, but the 49ers are unbeaten when McCaffrey starts and their quarterback finishes a game. While McCaffrey, George Kittle, Deebo Samuel and Trent Williams were not enough to topple the Eagles with Purdy injured (and backup Josh Johnson sustaining a concussion), the 49ers boast one of the NFL’s best nuclei.
Lynch’s extension comes barely a year after he turned down an Amazon offer that would have more than doubled his GM salary. Lynch, who will turn 52 on Monday, spent years in the FOX booth prior to joining the 49ers in surprising fashion. Shanahan, 43, came to San Francisco as a coveted commodity, moving west after leading the Falcons to a historically dominant offensive season in 2016.
Jed York‘s 49ers had become the first team since the late-1970s Niners to make back-to-back head coaches (Jim Tomsula, Chip Kelly) one-and-dones. While Shanahan and Lynch started slowly, the 2019 season — after the team parlayed Garoppolo’s 2018 ACL tear into the No. 2 overall pick (Nick Bosa) — proved indicative of the team’s capabilities. The 49ers just gave Bosa a record-smashing extension.
Shanahan is the 49ers’ longest-tenured HC since George Seifert; this extension puts him in line to top the two-time Super Bowl winner, who coached the team for eight seasons. Lynch’s GM tenure matches predecessor Trent Baalke‘s in length; the Jim Harbaugh coworker was in the GM chair from 2010-16.
Good!!! Now, let’s win another Super Bowl…
Another? Last time Santa Clara won the big on, the Super Bowl counter was in he 20s
Shanahan is somehow still underrated.
He hasn’t won the big one, but he will.
In my opinion, he is just a tick below Andy Reid.
If shanny had mahomes they’d have multiple rings. But then again if my uncle had two X chromosomes he’d be my aunt
Nice!
Shanahan should’ve been Coach of the Year for 2022, but that award went to Brian Daboll because New York. Last night’s result at Levi’s Stadium left no doubt who is the better coach.
ChuckyNJ 49’ers were loaded last year as well, everyone expected them to be really good, and Shanahan is an experienced HC. Giants came out of nowhere as a playoff team with a first year HC.
If the award worked the way you want it to, it should’ve been Andy Reid.
Niners were loaded but you’re leaving out the fact that Kyle won 8 straight games with a rookie last pick in the draft quarterback after his first two qb went down to injury
He is such a good offensive mind, that it almost doesn’t matter who the QB.
Thats probably too far, but you get the point.
Bills1 I agree. It’s mostly 49ers fans who hate on him which makes no sense. Look how long it took Reid to win a SB, he was fired by the Eagles and it took getting the most talented QB we maybe have ever seen. It takes time and takes a little luck sometimes too but Kyle is a great coach.
Mahomes is a magician
Kyle is an offensive minded genius. If they were to get Caleb Williams they’d win a super bowl
Hilarious, 3 weeks ago all the so-called experts were hammering these two over the QB trade to Dallas. Now they are well paid and crowned football geniuses. Good thing nobody ever remembers the past.
In all fairness, Shanahan wanted to take Mac Jones instead of Lance.
I’m not sure that the Jones thing was that black and white. It always felt like the 9ers were putting that out there to throw people off, which was unnecessary because the pick was so high that it shouldn’t have mattered. To be fair, a lot of teams do that at that spot. I think that they thought Lance to be more in demand, because other teams (like Dallas) indicated that he was high on their boards. Teams tend to play it safer than they need to at times with their top picks.
Of course, and to your point, it was also reported that the 9ers were undecided. They had three guys that they probably could have picked, but would have been happy with any one. They had to find which would make them happiest, and that was Lance. I just don’t think that Lynch, who defers to Shanahan on most offensive decisions, would have overruled him on picking the 9ers’ top quarterback for the future. There’s just no way that he’d have made that pick without the longtime offensive coach’s blessing. Also worthy of consideration is one of the major reasons that San Fran wanted to move on from Jimmy Garappolo, which was his supposed inability to throw the deep ball (in reality he’s not as bad as he’s regarded-Shanahan probably saw that as an area that he wanted more capability, but players are complete packages, and you have to take the complete player instead of picking and choosing). Jones was not thought of as having much more ability than Garappolo in that department, while Lance had what was arguably the strongest arm in the draft. It would have been an upgrade in terms of athletic ability, at face value, to acquire that skill.
Shanahan and Lynch have succeeded despite that blunder, though, and so it’s been due to the development of the opposite end of their draft order. So, while the Lance debacle is truly historic, they’ve made a separately impressive investment and development of a seventh rounder to help make up for it. At the end of the day, the 9ers are still winning games, and that’s really what you pay these guys for.
harrycarey Both can be true at once. The Lance saga was an ugly mistake, it’s fair to criticize them for totally whiffing on such a big swing. They do deserve it. At the same time, you have to recognize how great they’ve done otherwise to heavily soften what would usually be a big blow to a team.
It’s an odd thing that they messed up so badly but have been so great otherwise.
Apparently somebody remembers the past and that’s why they received the extensions. This team is nearly completely drafted by the 49ers. Thats an impressive achievement on its own. 1 bad call on Lance shouldn’t outbalance all the guys they have hit on.
both first round picks were 29th in 2022 and 2023. Yes, first round BUT late each time. Bad trade but not gravely bad. Now, what Miami did with those picks is painful. Tyreke Hill, Waddle and Bradley Chubb. THAT is what SF missed out on. Also, would they have preferred Jones/Fields? That’s who they might have drafted with no trade. My point: the trade wasn’t great but it wasn’t as painful as its made out to be.
No, it was pretty bad. The thing is, the 9ers have been exemplary in other areas, before and after the trade. That’s why they’re winning. I don’t think that we should diminish or re-define how historic that trade was; rather, it would be better to point out the other things that Shanahan and Lynch have done to keep the team competitive.
You can’t say the 49ers missed out on that because they wouldn’t have traded and paid top dollar for Hill with Deebo and Aiyuk on the team.
Again, with those two, they wouldn’t have drafted Waddle either because WR wasn’t a need.
Somewhere RGIII is shaking with rage
RG3 is having fun doing college football for ESPN — he’s working Auburn-Texas A&M this weekend.
He was also crying about Shanahan and Lynch keeping their jobs after the Trey Lance debacle despite them being among the best at their jobs in the business
I don’t believe that the Lance pick was made by Shanahan or Lynch, pretty sure it was made the Yorks. They wanted a black quarterback. If you live anywhere in the bay area or Silicon Valley you know this is true. It’s part of the local culture and politics. Everyone was calling for black QB. I think they reached for Lance for that exact reason. That is absolutely not to say that there shouldn’t be a black QB, or that aren’t any, simply saying that was the underlying reason the 49ers made that move.
Shanahans body language and even his speech was different when talking about Lance, always seemed on the defensive and slightly angry. The way Shanahan used Lance in the games he did play made it seem like he was trying to prove a point.
Both shanahan and lynch just got paid after turning three first round picks into a 4th round pick, there is no way that pick was theirs.
Nice way to deflect from management’s failure, but in order to trade away that amount of draft capital, the GM had to own, or at least buy-in on that plan.
These guys have won 9 of the past 10 meetings against the Rams so was anyone expecting them not to get a contract extension?
That wasted first round pick where they traded up to draft Lance was warranted where they get contract extensions. SMH only the niners
This is where you aren’t knowledgeable on the situation.
15 of the 22 starters were drafted by the 49ers. They missed on Lance but they hit home runs on Kittle, Warner, Armstead, Bosa, Deebo, Greenlaw, Aiyuk, Purdy and Banks.
They also drafted the kicker and punter and they seem to be big wins as well.