SF 49ers: Kyle Shanahan coaching tree’s growth is an excellent sign

SF 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is losing two key assistants, Robert Saleh and Mike LaFleur, but that’s great news as far as his coaching tree.

To this day, the NFL is still reaping the rewards of former SF 49ers Hall of Fame head coach Bill Walsh’s storybook coaching tree.

And now, the seeds from the Niners’ current head coach, Kyle Shanahan, are beginning to grow elsewhere.

Last Thursday, the NY Jets announced they were hiring San Francisco’s defensive coordinator from 2017 through 2020, Robert Saleh, to become their next head coach. The move wasn’t a big surprise, as Saleh was one of the league’s hottest candidates and had multiple interviews open up before finally accepting the job with Gang Green.

Not surprisingly, Saleh immediately went to work plucking some assistants from Shanahan’s staff, namely SF 49ers run-game coordinator Mike LaFleur, who’ll go on to serve as Saleh’s offensive coordinator with the Jets this upcoming season. While New York might take a while to revamp its otherwise lackluster roster, it won’t be out of the possibility to eventually see the Jets turn into a Niners-East team within a few years, both in terms of play-calling styles, schemes and personnel.

In the short term, Saleh and LaFleur departing is bad news for Shanahan and San Francisco. But over the long run, it only serves to boost Shanahan’s own legacy.

Why a coaching tree is important to Kyle Shanahan, the SF 49ers

It’s easy for the critics to point out a “lack of success” Shanahan has had since taking over his duties in 2017. After all, looking at an overall win-loss record of 29-35 with three losing campaigns out of four seasons doesn’t spell a good job.

But that’s awfully shortsighted and doesn’t take into account the context. 2017 was a rebuild year with the SF 49ers turning over nearly 70 percent of the roster Shanahan inherited the previous year. 2018 and 2020 were marked by key injuries, namely to starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, and few teams are adequately prepared to absorb the loss of a starting signal-caller.

Then there was 2019, of course.

Shanahan isn’t a perfect head coach. No one is. But the good head coaches around the league spin off assistants into promotional roles elsewhere. After the LA Rams’ Super Bowl run in 2018, head coach Sean McVay’s staff became a popular picking ground for promotional jobs across the league.

This year, despite the Niners’ 6-10 finish, Shanahan’s staff is now the popular shopping destination.

That’s an indication other teams around the league, particularly the Jets now, realize Shanahan’s capability of grooming assistants and creating a culture a rebuilding team needs to succeed. To quote Walsh, “Champions behave like champions before they’re champions.” That was the kind of atmosphere Shanahan was helping create in the two years before Super Bowl LIV.

It’s now the culture Saleh and LaFleur will look to replicate in New York.

Plainly stated, Saleh’s hire is a key indicator Shanahan and the SF 49ers have gone about doing things the right way. Has it always been perfect? No. But the direction has moved correctly. To put things into a greater context, the last time a Niners assistant was hired as a head coach elsewhere directly after a season in San Francisco was former offensive coordinator Norv Turner after his 2006 campaign under then-head coach Mike Nolan. But Turner had been a head coach two times before accepting the San Diego Chargers’ job in 2007.

All those years since, including those under head coach Jim Harbaugh from 2011 through 2014, the SF 49ers coaching tree failed to grow very much at all.

If anything, Saleh’s new gig and LaFleur’s promotion to offensive coordinator is just one more sign the rest of the league has taken notice of what Shanahan has done despite all the challenges he has faced.

There’s nothing wrong with that whatsoever.