Why Cowherd believes Shanahan is coaching 49ers ‘rigidly’ originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
Kyle Shanahan is drawing plenty of criticism after the 49ers‘ fourth consecutive loss, criticism he firmly believes is warranted.
Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd spoke about Shanahan on Monday, and explained why he believes Shanahan has been coaching “rigidly” so far this season.
“There was every reason for the Colts to lay down last night.. We need to stop lumping the 49ers in with the great teams.”
— @ColinCowherd on Kyle Shanahan and San Francisco following 4th straight loss: pic.twitter.com/a1hD41RvpF
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) October 25, 2021
“This is not a shot at Kyle Shanahan, but he’s a very rigid personality and I watched that team last night, they are coached rigidly, they coach scared. Listen, if you’re going to coach that way with Jimmy Garoppolo, play Trey Lance, what’s the point?
“Organizationally the 49ers have had too many whiffs in the draft, haven’t hit on all their free agents, we got to stop lumping them in with the great teams, just got to keep him off the great coach, great organization, great roster, enough. In their own division, they are four of four.”
Shanahan’s record with the 49ers, as Cowherd points out above, now is worse than Mike Singletary during his infamous tenure with the organization.
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There are a plethora of reasons for why the 49ers have struggled over the past two seasons, but Shanahan certainly deserves the lion’s share of the blame as the team’s head coach.
Injuries to key players have played a factor, but every NFL team deals with injuries every year. At a certain point, the 49ers need to take a step back and try to examine why so many players have been befallen by major injuries over the past few seasons.
Shanahan was awarded a multi-year contract extension in June 2020 that will keep him in San Francisco through the 2025 season.
He is far from on the hot seat at this point, but Shanahan will need to turn things around if he hopes to see the end of that contract.