San Francisco 49ers: 3 mistakes Kyle Shanahan has made so far in 2021

The 49ers are 2-2 at the first-quarter mark of the 2021 season, and Kyle Shanahan deserves a good share of the blame. Here are three reasons why.

It’s usually easy to be critical after a loss, and it’s even easier when that loss comes against a division rival. Easier still when that particular loss is directly on the tail of another loss in a game the San Francisco 49ers could and should have won but didn’t.

That’s precisely the context facing head coach Kyle Shanahan after the Niners fell behind 17-0 to the Green Bay Packers in Week 3, only to come back and retake the lead before ultimately losing that game, followed by yet another frustrating and offensively disjointed effort in Week 4 at home to the Seattle Seahawks.

Now at 2-2 a quarter of the way through the 2021 season, Shanahan finds himself last in the NFC West and heading into a Week 5 matchup against the undefeated Arizona Cardinals on the road.

Not an easy prospect for turning things around.

Shanahan has made plenty of mistakes this year. Some have involved game management, while others can focus on the play-calling. Bluntly stated, the team hasn’t come close to playing its best football. That might be OK for a game or two. Yet it’s problematic when it’s a four-week stretch.

But let’s move away from the tactical elements of Shanahan’s approach and how those have gone wrong. Instead, we need to break down some of the strategic portions of Shanahan’s efforts this season and, more specifically, paint a picture as to why those choices are proving to be problematic for what’s turning into a hard-to-watch San Francisco squad four weeks into the regular season.