Niners Nation
Jim Tomsula is one of the obvious answers, but can you guess the other head coach the 49ers hired that made this list?
Starting with Dick Nolan, the San Francisco 49ers have hired some of the greatest coaches in NFL history. Before Nolan, there wasn’t a single playoff victory in the club’s name. Nolan won three divisional titles in eight seasons.
A few years after Nolan departed, some guy named Bill Walsh came along and won three Super Bowls, six division titles, the 1981 AP NFL Coach of the Year, and is recognized as one of the most innovative football minds ever to grace the sidelines.
After Walsh, all George Siefert needed to do was keep the Ferrari on the road. Siefert ended up winning over 76 percent of his games from 89-96, and that included a pair of Super Bowl wins as well as seven division championships.
Then there’s Jim Harbaugh, who helped the 49ers get back on track after a poor decade, turned Alex Smith from a bust into an efficient quarterback, and took the 49ers to three straight NFC Championships.
Kyle Shanahan has picked up where Harbaugh left off. However, the blemishes in between those two and the time gap between Steve Mariucci and Harbaugh’s arrival leave plenty to be desired. So much so that CBS Sports listed two of those names as the worst coaching hires in NFL history.
13. Dennis Erickson (49ers)
Record: 9-23
It was always going to be tough to replace Steve Mariucci, who helped cultivate Hall of Fame talent and led four playoff runs in six seasons atop the 49ers. Choosing Erickson, who had managed a 31-33 mark in four years with the rival Seahawks, ended up setting the stage for a total teardown in San Francisco, with successor Mike Nolan infamously opting for Alex Smith over future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers in the 2005 NFL Draft.
Erickson was a dominant head coach...in college. He failed to have a winning record in Seattle with Warren Moon as his quarterback. Moon once called Erickson “a little too lax,” pointing to Erickson not fining players for strolling in late for meetings, and highlighting how that attitude was the reason why the Seahawks lost close games.
Erickson jumped back to Oregon State, where he was 16 games over .500, before a disastrous tenure with the 49ers. Julian Peterson stood up for Erickson, saying his hands were tied:
“It was bad timing, really. The players enjoyed Dennis Erickson. I didn’t want him to leave; I thought he was a good coach. I just thought his hands were tied. College is different from being in the NFL. In college, you can recruit your own guys. You can [say], ‘This guy is playing better, I want him in the game.’ But when you get to the NFL, that guy’s check might be a little bit larger, even though [the other] guy might be playing better.
“It was a...
