Mike Florio hints at 49ers executives pressuring Kyle Shanahan into Super Bowl-losing overtime strategy
Kyle Shanahan's getting another taste of the NFL's dark underbelly in the wake of another lost Super Bowl. According to Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, Shanahan had two choices when it came to selecting a strategy for overtime in the Super Bowl and he chose the one that gave him the best chance of maintaining his job.
The claim came amid a larger discussion about the role that analytics played in the 49ers' downfall. Florio claimed that executives used analytics to call out their coaching staff on decisions that they otherwise would have no ability to second guess.
Here's how he put it on Wednesday's show:
"Kyle Shanahan would rather deal with annoying headlines from me than deal with having to worry about someone from that analytics group trying to stick a knife into his back in dealing directly with ownership. That's it in a nutshell. That's why he went with the plan."
"He'd rather be criticized by us or others in the media than be sabotaged by people in the building. And coaches are definitely worried about that. When they are out there doing their job, everybody else is huddled up in the suite and they're whispering, 'Oh, we should have done this. Oh, we should have done that.' And that whispering can continue and it can spread and it can grow and the next thing you know, the head coach is no longer the head coach of the team." [00:19:00]
How many times has Kyle Shanahan finished with a winning record with the 49ers?
The San Francisco 49ers ended the year with a loss, but the head coach did net a massive victory this year. After a slow start to his head coaching career, he now has more winning seasons than losing seasons. In 2017, his first season ended with a 6-10 record. In 2018, his second season ended with a 4-12 record.
However, in 2019, he went 13-3 and went to the Super Bowl to face Patrick Mahomes. That breakthrough year was followed by a 6–10 performance. After four seasons with the team, Shanahan had losing seasons three times.
However, since his last losing season in 2020, Shanahan has now ripped off three straight winning seasons, tipping the scales back in his favor.
As a head coach, Kyle Shanahan is now 64-51 in 115 games of action and riding as high in the regular season and early playoff rounds as anyone since the revelation of Brock Purdy.
Of course, many would be quick to blame Jimmy Garoppolo's injuries as the biggest culprit in Shanahan's slow start. Now, however, one can argue that those downtrodden seasons are left in the past as a smaller piece of the story instead of the entire one.
If any of the above quotes are used, credit Pro Football Talk and H/T Sportskeeda.