5 overreactions to 49ers’ embarrassing start to 2022 season

Overreaction No. 2: Fire Kyle Shanahan

Go ahead and type in “fire Kyle Shanahan” into your social media searches, and you’re bound to find something like this:

Knee-jerk reactions are to be expected, especially after such gut-wrenching losses like the ones the Niners have endured thus far this season.

But all one has to do is rewind back to the head-coaching carousel San Francisco set up for itself in 2015 and 2016 to realize a hard lesson: Replacing head coaches rarely leads to the kind of success that it’s expected to generate.

Yes, Kyle Shanahan deserves criticism for many of the things that have happened this season.

How he handled quarterback Trey Lance, having him exposed to too many quarterback runs that ultimately led to his season-ending ankle injury in Week 2, can be directed back at Shanahan. The 49ers going 1-of-10 on third downs in Week 3 falls on Shanahan to a large degree, too, while the offense has looked clunky and disjointed over all three games as well.

But, if you’re thinking the Niners fire Shanahan as a result of all this and open up Pandora’s Box of post-firing question marks, think again.