Niners Nation
The San Francisco 49ers have been through some great highs and deep lows under head coach Kyle Shanahan, reaching the Super Bowl twice, the NFC Championship four times, while winning six games or fewer three times.
Usually, with such trends, a coach will have been a Coach of the Year candidate, especially with seasons of 12 and 13 wins. But, when the 49ers went 13-3 in 2019 after a 4-12 season in 2018, Shanahan was second in Coach of the Year voting behind John Harbaugh, whose Baltimore Ravens went 14-2 after a 10-6 season the year prior.
Then, after leading the 49ers to 13 wins in 2022, despite dealing with two separate quarterback injuries, Shanahan once again came second in the award voting, this time losing to New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll. Daboll had taken the Giants to the playoffs with nine wins in his first season at the helm.
The 49ers remained a top contender in 2023, winning 12 games en route to the No. 1 seed in the NFC, but Shanahan was an afterthought in the Coach of the Year conversation, placing fifth in the voting, with Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski winning his second Coach of the Year award.
Now, in 2025, Shanahan could have another opportunity to finally win the award, with his team coming off a 6-11 season. Thus far, the 49ers are 4-1, despite facing a plethora of injuries to starters, including quarterback Brock Purdy. And yet, they’ve found a way to win close games, with all five of their outcomes being one-score games so far.
Will Shanahan finally win a Coach of the Year award?
Last week, ESPN’s Bill Barnwell did his NFL quarter-season awards, listing a Top 3 for every NFL award. At the time, the 49ers were 3-1 heading into the Thursday Night game with the Los Angeles Rams. And interestingly, Shanahan’s name did not crack the list for the coaching award.
Instead, the top three were Los Angeles’s Sean McVay (No. 3), Indianapolis’s Shane Steichen, and Detroit’s Dan Campbell.
What did Barnwell use to grade the coaches?
“Coach of the Year often becomes the award honoring the guy whose team most exceeds the preseason expectations, which is why we end up with situations where Brian Daboll and Matt Nagy have as many Coach of the Year awards as Andy Reid — and more than Mike Tomlin,” Barnwell wrote. “There’s real merit in taking a bad team to the postseason, but Daboll’s Giants were built on their performance in one-score games, which didn’t stick. Nagy’s Bears thrived because of their dominant defense, which was overseen by Vic Fangio; once the vaunted defensive coordinator left, Nagy suddenly wasn’t the best coach in football.
“I try to lean toward sustainability and coaches who are doing great work on their preferred side of the ball as part of this award. Take Liam Coen, who will be a candidate for this after going 3-1. Coen has done great work rebuilding Jacksonville’s run...
