San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is thought of as one of the best coaches in the NFL, but there is an unfortunate "but" that comes along with any conversation about Shanahan: "He's a very good coach, but he's never won a Super Bowl."
There's been a lot of heartbreak.
A recent ESPN list, ranking the best teams that have not won a Super Bowl over the last 20 years, has three teams with which Shanahan was either the coach of or the offensive coordinator of in the top 10: the 2016 Atlanta Falcons, 2019 Niners, and 2023 Niners.
That Falcons team was pretty incredible. Matt Ryan was amazing at quarterback that season, and Julio Jones was one of the best wide receivers in the game at that time. Shanahan had a lot of weapons at his disposal, but it will always be a bit puzzling why he continued to call so many pass plays in the second half when the Falcons should have been running out the clock.
There was hope that maybe Shanahan would learn from the brutal loss and apply the lessons he learned with the 49ers when he was hired as San Francisco's head coach just days after that Super Bowl. Maybe he learned some lessons, but the results haven't been any different.
The 2019 team was a juggernaut, defensively. That was probably the best defense Shanahan has had since he became head coach, and the team's offense was good enough, certainly on the run side, to win. The fact that the Niners blew a fourth-quarter lead in that game just continued his reputation as a choker.
2023 was a different team as that squad was stronger overall on the offensive side with Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, George Kittle, and Christian McCaffrey, as well as Brock Purdy playing at a high level. The defense was good but inconsistent at times, and it was clear that Shanahan did not fully trust defensive coordinator Steve Wilks.
The Niners got closer than any team ever has to winning a Super Bowl as they had a three-point lead with less than two minutes left in regulation, and then took a three-point lead in overtime, only for the Kansas City Chiefs to score a touchdown and break San Francisco's heart again.
Shanahan has a ton of baggage and scar tissue, but at this point all he can do is move forward. If he gets another chance in a Super Bowl, he can apply all of the lessons he's learned over the years and can finally get the monkey off his back. That list may be full of nightmares and bad memories but maybe the future will be brighter for Shanahan and the 49ers.
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