I have heard every misconception in the book about Kyle Shanahan since the move up to 3 as it relates to who he’ll take at quarterback. While I obviously don’t know him personally, some of these misconceptions can be easily debunked by evidence to the contrary.
The first big one is that he only wants a certain type of QB because that’s all he’s had. This one gets more ridiculous every time I have to hear it. The only one where he might have had some say on who his guy was, was when they acquired Garoppolo. Even then, I continue to believe they were backed into a corner with that decision. Peer pressure by Belichick as a first-year regime, pressure to just find a quarterback, among other things. Everywhere else, he has not had the choice at the position. Schaub in Houston, Cousins in Washington, Hoyer in Cleveland and Ryan in Atlanta were not his choices. The only maybe one on this is Cousins, which his dad clearly took but it’s become pretty clear they actually wanted Russell Wilson instead, based on what’s been said, but the organization didn’t let it happen.
This argument also ignores the fact that people do change and evolve. You could make an argument that Shanahan being around only one type of QB his coaching career clouded his judgement early on with the 49ers. Like he was only comfortable with that kind of player, which is natural. But it’s also natural to progress when you see and do things. The comments Shanahan has made about evaluating QBs in 2017 vs 2020 is drastically different. He even said he changed after experiencing things and actually getting out there himself. This would be similar to how when someone moves out of their parent’s house and lives on their own, they create their own way to do things that they thought were only a certain way because they became involved in different experiences. It does happen all the time.
Some of those experiences you may ask? Well, the big one that gets brought up as a turning point was Mahomes in the Super Bowl. He watched that guy perform magic acts to come back and beat him and his perfect game plan that was working for three and a half quarters. The narrative about Garoppolo changed then. His evaluation of QBs changed then. It’s not a coincidence.
So overall to bring up the past of Shanahan is irrelevant because he had so little choice in almost all those QB situations, and it does appear he is a drastically different guy than he used to be.
There is also this weird narrative that Shanahan is reserved with his offense and isn’t aggressive. It’s the exact opposite with him actually. The trade up from 12 to 3 itself is aggressive. They’ve also shown the necessary aggressiveness in other moves. On the field as well, Shanahan has actually been criticized for being too aggressive in both Super Bowl losses, so I don’t understand where this is honestly coming from. He wants to push the ball downfield and score points. That’s how he’s always been.
Piggybacking off this and talking about the Super Bowls. In both losses, he asked his quarterbacks to do more and they didn’t deliver for him. So while you can say it’s his fault, you can also see that he had high expectations for those QBs and they just failed. Seeing that honestly also probably factored into his changed tune on QBs. He saw the guys he had couldn’t do enough......... twice. And not just missed throws but he’s seen his QBs get sacked 3 or 4 times in key situations in the Super Bowl.
People also think Shanahan is arrogant and set in his ways. That is also a total lie. This guy is obsessed with offense and is always trying to find new ways to innovate it. He has never run the same version of his offense twice. It’s always changing and evolving. He always has something new to bring to it, not just season to season but week to week. He also adapts very well to the players he has. Plenty of people who have played for him say the Shanahan offense is whoever he has available to him at any given time. He’s a very adaptable guy and always knows how to make things work. So to say he’s arrogant and has one way to do things is not based at all in reality.
As an aside, I’ll posit this. Sean McVay, also under the Mike Shanahan coaching tree, got tired of Jared Goff because he didn’t do enough and spent a premium to get Stafford. The 49ers always took advantage of the former number 1 pick. Shanahan saw that first hand and it looked easy to beat him for them often times. He knows just how easy those guys are to pick apart and that the system didn’t help him after a bit of time. Goff was figured out easily. So why would Shanahan watch that and then take the guy that looks like Jared Goff for this offense?
There is also no doubt that he sees how much the other Mike Shanahan disciple, Matt LaFleur, is able to do with Rodgers. He sees how insane that looks and that it’s turned LaFleur into the winningest head coach for the first two years of their career ever. He already has almost as many wins as Kyle Shanahan does despite half as many years being a head coach. We all know Kyle is a little bit egotistical. Not enough that it’s toxic but enough that he wants to have the competitive edge. He so far has had far less success than the other Shanahan disciples despite being the flesh and blood of the guy who created the offense. That can’t be sitting well with him. He undoubtedly wants to be the best, not just of these three but he wants to be better than everyone. His drive to be that is apparent to me. He always wants to have the best offense and always wants to win. It would be dumb to say he doesn’t (but I’ve heard it said).
These misconceptions are just really dumb and the narrative in very lazy. With any amount of critical thinking, they are very easy to knock down as being created based on conjecture at best. In no way are any of these things based in absolute fact. The truth is nobody has a clue who the 49ers will take at 3. People say Mac Jones based on these misconceptions, but the 49ers themselves are currently keeping that as close to them as possible, as they do with all info, but especially this. No doubt in my mind only a select few people actually know the decision with this pick and their lips are sealed until April 29th when the pick is made.
I will conclude with this on the matter. If he does take Mac Jones at pick 3, most, if not all, these misconceptions won’t be that anymore. They will become facts. All the narratives we hear about him will never leave. His legacy could easily become an offensive genius that just couldn’t seal the deal in Super Bowls and also passed on getting one of these sweet quarterbacks despite many chances to get one because he was stuck in his ways too much. The best thing to ever happen to Andy Reid was Mahomes. Reid was seen similarly to how Shanahan is viewed. Great offensive mind but just couldn’t do it in big games and never had a quarterback to help him get over the hump. That helped prompt the move to get Mahomes. It was risky but the desire to become a true great outweighed the risk. It changed the whole story about him. Shanahan made an even more aggressive move up the draft board. If he whiffs on this by taking Mac Jones, he will face a big uphill battle becoming a great head coach. He might not even last in San Francisco five more years if he does that (doubt Reid is still Chiefs head coach if he just stuck to Alex Smith-like guys). This is make it break for Shanahan in many ways. He has a chance to put to bed all the narratives about him and select a quarterback that could jumpstart a dynasty.
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