The York family has been busy locking up its cornerstones this year.
After inking defensive end Nick Bosa to a record-setting contract at the end of training camp, the 49ers last week announced multiyear extensions for coach Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch. While the exact length of the extension isn’t publicly known, it will tack on years to the extensions that run through 2025 for the 49ers shot-callers.
Shanahan spoke to reporters Wednesday in Santa Clara and revealed that his extension was actually finalized before the opener in Pittsburgh on Sept. 10, so he got to celebrate with his family before jumping into the regular-season grind.
“Doing it before the season even started meant a lot to me, just shows you the people that we’re with, that we believe in each other despite of what could happen,” Shanahan said. “Whether we were 0-3 or 3-0, we’d still be in the same situation. I really like where we live and really like the people we work with. They’re committed to giving us a chance to go for it every single year and that’s all I could ever ask for.”
The 49ers are looking like legit Super Bowl contenders after knocking on the door with three NFC title game appearances the past four seasons. San Francisco has won 13 straight regular season games and are looking like a stacked juggernaut on both sides of the ball.
It wasn’t always this rosy in Santa Clara.
The Shanahan/Lynch era started with a 6-10 season in 2017 before a 4-12 season in 2018. Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was able to stay healthy for the entire 2019 season and led the 49ers all the way to the Super Bowl, kickstarting the recent run of success.
“It gets tough to stick with the plan and that's what made it so exciting the first time, meeting with (CEO) Jed (York) and the commitment he gave us and what he said,” Shanahan said. “I really feel like that made us make the right decisions for those first couple years and helped build it the right way. And that's really what got us to come here, allowed us to be patient, do it right, and he hasn't changed ever since.”
Since the rough start, the team has rode out continuous waves of quarterback controversy before finally settling down with Brock Purdy as their franchise QB of the future. The 49ers have built a reputation of being a smart, physical, team-oriented squad under Shanahan/Lynch and it seems like entire organization is bought in.
The Shanahan-Lynch combo certainly appears to be working, as they have been able to maneuver the salary cap deftly and keep their homegrown stars with market-setting contract extensions. Lynch considered making the jump back into the TV booth in 2022, but Shanahan is eager to keep working with the GM going forward.
“I think it's huge,” Shanahan said. “I think it's all part of it, just from the ownership, to John, to the coaching staff, to our players, to the whole building. We feel very connected and we like what we've established here, but more importantly we believe we're doing it the right way and that'll allow us to have a higher percentage of doing it the right way going forward.”
Shanahan is in his seventh season at the helm and has coached 110 games for the franchise, including the playoffs, which is the fifth-highest total in team history behind Bill Walsh (166), George Seifert (143), Dick Nolan (117) and Buck Shaw (116). If Shanahan can make it to the 2026 season, he will surpass Walsh’s record for most games coached in franchise history.
“Yeah, hypothetically it'd be very cool,” Shanahan said. “Contracts do not mean anything. They mean a lot, but that doesn't mean anything in that aspect. But to be even asked the question with someone like that is really cool.”