Kyle Shanahan still has questions about his game management

There’s no denying that Kyle Shanahan is a brilliant offensive mind who can win games for the San Francisco 49ers on his own. However, the head coach still suffers from a (fair) amount of criticism regarding his game management, especially after getting so close to winning a ring multiple times and still couldn’t deliver.

On Tuesday, during his appearance at the Up and Adams show, NFL analyst Mike Silver once again highlighted concerns about Shanahan’s management midway through the biggest games of his career. While not diminishing his brilliance when designing plays, Silver stated that it’s still unclear whether the 49ers coach can adapt things when the stakes are higher:

When the game is played on his terms, it works out well. So the question is “what happens when it isn’t?” And we’ve seen some coaches, on the fly, being able to adjust just brilliantly under adverse conditions. With Kyle, that’s still open to question. That said, the game was played out on his terms, this last Super Bowl, late in the game, if they hit that third down, coming out of the two-minute warning, they probably bleed the clock down, kick a field goal at the end and that narrative is blown up. It’s a game of inches. They weren’t ready for the blitz, which led to an incompletion and Mahomes Mahomesed.

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Is Kyle Shanahan in danger of losing his job with the San Francisco 49ers?

Absolutely not, and anyone who believes this is delusional. Shanahan is one of the best head coaches in the league, and he made great decisions throughout the latest Super Bowl to keep the 49ers in the game, especially with a fourth-down conversion late that led them to a touchdown in the fourth quarter against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Shanahan called a good – not great – game, and the final result came down to execution more than playcalling. San Francisco was a better team, but that doesn’t matter if your opponent is Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs: you have to play absolutely out of the world and they failed to do so in the crucial moments.

San Francisco knows that, if they decide to part ways with the head coach, the line to acquire his services will include at least half of the NFL teams. There’s no way his job is in jeopardy.

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