Last week on NFL Thursday, we looked at the crash-and-burn job for the San Francisco 49ers in 2024, determining that injuries played a big role in the team’s losing season this year after three consecutive trips to the NFC Championship Game in from 2021-2023. But reality mandates we point out the elephant in the room, too: Head Coach Kyle Shanahan and his distinct pattern of blowing fourth-quarter leads forever.

First, we must go back in time to our very first columns on this website: coverage of Super Bowl LI, which featured the Atlanta Falcons blowing a 28-3 lead against the cheatin‘ New England Patriots and losing in overtime. The offensive coordinator of those failin’ Falcons? Shanahan. The 49ers hired him nonetheless, and he proceeded to have two losing seasons in 2017 and 2018 as he rebuilt a mediocre roster from scratch.

The 49ers had gone 2-14 in 2016 with quarterbacks Colin Kaepernick (90.7 QB rating) and Blaine Gabbert (68.4) getting the starts: Kaep was 1-10 in his 11 starts and never played in the NFL again after basically getting blacklisted for his political points of view. One good thing Shanahan did was acquire Patriots backup QB Jimmy Garappolo, though, and the team finished 2017 with a 6-10 thanks to a W5 at the end.

However, Garappolo was injured for most of 2018, and the team regressed to 4-12 in 2018 as Shanahan gave starts to C.J. Beathard, a nepo baby QB who didn’t belong in the NFL. Maybe this is no surprise considering Shanahan’s own background as the son of a legendary coach with Super Bowl rings; Beathard was the grandson of a legendary general manager with Super Bowl rings. Yet he went 1-9 combined in these years.

(Surely, Kaepernick and his lifetime 88.9 QB rating would have been a better option, no? But never mind.)

In 2019, though, it all came together for San Francisco as the team posted a 13-3 record and advanced to Super Bowl LIV against the Kansas City Chiefs. The 49ers had a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter, too, with just under nine minutes left. Redemption for Shanahan? Nope, the Chiefs scored TDs on their final three possessions to win the game, 31-20; just like Super Bowl LI, his offensive playcalling came under fire.

To sum it up: he blew the Falcon’s Super Bowl chances in 2016 by not playing the percentages and angling for the field goal that would have put his team up by two scores with about four minutes left. Now, he blew the 49ers’ opportunity to win their first Super Bowl since 1994 by gaining just 37 yards in 13 plays over three final possessions, which included two runs for 22 yards and 10 pass plays for 15 yards. What happened?

In both these collapses, the defense has to take some blame, of course, but at the same time, when you’re given chances to close out the game? Close it out: just like Falcons QB Matt Ryan did in Super Bowl LI, Garappolo took a terrible sack instead of throwing the ball away. And Jimmy G also tossed an INT there on the 49ers’ final possession. If you’re an offensive genius/guru like Shanahan (allegedly), well … it’s on you.

So, this was two ginormous fails on Shanahan’s slate in just four seasons. Bring on 2020, with Covid and more injuries to Garappolo; the 49ers head coach still had failed to develop a backup QB (see below), and with Jimmy G starting only six games, San Francisco dropped to 6-10 with Beathard even getting two more starts somehow. And then Shanahan did one of the dumbest things ever: he foolishly drafted Trey Lance.

Not only did he draft him in April 2021, he traded away three No. 1 picks to move up to draft a guy that had played just one game since December 2019 due to Covid, etc., and a player that had shone only at the FCS level of college football. Needless to say, that never worked out for the 49ers: Lance got a contract for $34.1M and went just 2-2 as a starter for San Francisco before being dumped later on the Dallas Cowboys.

To Shanahan’s credit, the 49ers overcame this draft blunder to finish 10-7 in 2021 despite starting 2-4 to open the season. Garappolo was healthy again, and San Francisco nabbed the sixth seed in the playoffs, despite finishing third in the NFC West. Again, to the coach’s credit, the 49ers won two road playoff games in Dallas and Green Bay, respectively, to advance to the NFCCG against the Los Angeles Rams. Well done?!

Sort of: once again, the 49ers found themselves with a fourth-quarter lead in a postseason game, beating the favored Rams, 17-7. Now admittedly, L.A. had the ball as the final 15 minutes began and scored a TD within 90 seconds to pull within four points, but what did the S.F. offense do in the final quarter of the game? We will check that immediately below, although Shanahan had given up his OC duties by 2021.

Recap: in the fourth quarter against the Rams, the 49ers offense managed just 41 yards on 12 plays over three drives—with no points, of course. The team was called for two delay-of-game penalties (one insignificant), and the game basically ended on a Garrappolo INT on the third drive. Those 12 plays? Three runs for eight yards and nine passes for 33 yards (3-for-9). Inexplicable collapse, yet again, for Shanahan.

Once is an anomaly; twice is coincidence; three times is a pattern. And these are just the playoff games on Shanahan’s slate; in the 2024 regular season alone, the 49ers have blown numerous late leads, as we discussed previously. However, that playoff loss brings us to 2022, when the S.F. front office traded for Christian McCaffrey, one of the best players in the game. The 49ers finished 13-4 with a W9 streak.

But Garappolo got hurt, once more, and this time, S.F. had a QB answer in rookie Brock Purdy, who had been underrated in the draft after a standout career at Iowa State. But at least Beathard was gone, right? Either way, Purdy stepped in and won the last five games of the regular season, and the 49ers then won two playoff games at home against the Seattle Seahawks and the Cowboys. Onto another NFCCG, of course!

This time, it was in Philadelphia, and we can only say this: Shanahan should have had a backup QB better than age-36 loser Josh Johnson to play behind Purdy at this point with both Jimmy G and Lance out with injuries. Johnson was just 1-8 as an NFL starter coming into the 2022 season, and we’re sure no one ever expected him to play. But it was Shanahan’s job to make sure the team didn’t go down with a Purdy injury.

But it did, as Purdy injured his elbow in Philadelphia, and the 49ers had only Johnson to turn to at that point: he was mediocre (7-for-13, 74 yards), of course, and the season ended “early” in the eyes of many S.F. fans. How did a genius like Shanahan fail to prepare for this? While we’re done with Kaepernick snark at this point, that would have been a very smart move in 17 different ways once Purdy took over the reins.

On to 2023: a 12-5 season with the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs got the 49ers to yet another Super Bowl again the Chiefs, and we know what happened there. This time, S.F. entered the fourth quarter behind, took the lead, let K.C. tie it, took the lead again, let the Chiefs tie it again, took the lead a third time (in the extra session), and then let K.C. win it in overtime: a back-and-forth affair that could have gone either way.

However, Shanahan still was criticized for his game management in the loss: local and national news outlets slammed his decision making in the overtime session. The number of “strikes” on this alleged genius’ record is rather high (and much more than three). He has four losing seasons now in eight seasons with the 49ers, and the overall record (78-64 regular season and postseason combined) doesn’t glow much.

Bottom line is this: if Shanahan’s daddy wasn’t famous, he’d never have been given the chances he’s had to fail so spectacularly so many times. He was a zero player in college, who probably would not have been on the team at Texas without his daddy’s help. And guys like that only get a coaching chance if they have a famous last name. He has blown numerous situations across a decade of game mismanagement. Nepo baby.

As we said last week, it’s a Super Bowl title or bust in 2025 for Shanahan with the 49ers, famous daddy or no.