While San Francisco 49ers fans may have their problems with head coach Kyle Shanahan at times, he is still one of the best coaches in the NFL. He cannot be considered a great coach until he wins a Super Bowl, but that would at least get him into the conversation of greatest Niners head coach of all time.
Bill Walsh obviously holds that title, currently, and it will be incredibly hard for any coach to unseat him from that. He led the Niners to three Super Bowl victories and also revolutionized the way the NFL plays the game in the process. That’s one heck of a legacy that is so hard to top.
His successor, George Seifert, may not get a ton of credit for the two Super Bowls he won as head coach because many still consider those teams as having Walsh’s fingerprints all over them. Still, Seifert has the best winning percentage of any 49ers head coach in history and remains No. 2 on the list.
After that, it seems pretty clear Shanahan is the third-best coach in the franchise’s storied history. He’s led his team to the NFC Championship game four times and the Super Bowl twice in his nine seasons with San Francisco. He has a record of 91-72, which is the third-best in franchise history.
The only guy one could even make an argument for is Jim Harbaugh, but he was only with the Niners for four years and did not have the longevity of success Shanahan has enjoyed.
There is a chance Shanahan could have the most wins of any head coach in the history of the franchise by 2028. He trails Seifert by 17 wins so, unless the Niners have an immaculate season, there are decent odds he will break that record in 2027.
That alone wouldn’t allow him to leapfrog Seifert. Shanahan has to have at least one Super Bowl victory with the Niners for that to happen, and then there is a case to be made he has eclipsed Seifert.
If Shanahan were to win two Super Bowls with the Niners, then an argument can be made that he has surpassed Walsh because Shanahan would've led San Francisco to at least four Super Bowls, one more than Walsh, and his longevity would have surpassed that of “The Genius.”
That’s a tall ask, especially since it certainly feels like Shanahan’s best chances at winning a Super Bowl with the 49ers have already passed. The championship window is still open, but the Niners' core is older and more injury-prone every year, which makes another title run seem less likely.
Still, he has a chance to pass Walsh on the all-time list or at least make for an interesting argument.
He needs two rings for that argument to even be taken seriously, though.
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