Kyle Shanahan is going to have to adjust his modus operandi after the 49ers executed sweeping roster changes this offseason.
Back in 2017, then-first-year head coach Kyle Shanahan inherited a San Francisco 49ers roster that was wholly devoid of talent.
Following a wild free-agent spending spree, one that included bringing aboard plenty of veterans who were familiar with his offense, Shanahan and the Niners turned over roughly 70 percent of a roster that won just two games the year prior.
For the first time since that inaugural season for the head coach, San Francisco will enter a year with more questions than answers, following what’s been a tumultuous offseason resulting in a large-scale exodus of talent. Some of Shanahan’s preferred players, particularly wide receiver Deebo Samuel, will don new uniforms in 2025, and the 49ers haven’t repeated the approach they used back in 2017 of inking older, experienced veterans on the free-agent market.
That might be tough on Shanahan, especially when looking at his tendencies.
Kyle Shanahan will have to get comfortable with 49ers’ incoming rookies
The 49ers have aimed to curtail their spending all offseason, which helps explain jettisoning older, more expensive players in favor of younger and cheaper options, many of those to come via the NFL Draft this April.
However, Shanahan has historically preferred veterans who understand his system over rookies and young players who are still proverbially cutting their teeth at the pro level.
Our friend Luis Sanchez over at Sports Illustrated described this trend from the head coach:
“Shanahan has always been fairly harsh and impatient with rookies and young players. Last year he had no choice due to injuries and lack of talent. He didn’t do it because he started to turn a new leaf.
He still favors veterans who don’t need a learning curve. However, with the way the cash spending and saving are looking for the 49ers, Shanahan is going to have to adjust to coaching a young team.”
There are multiple examples of this. Case in point, at center, Shanahan has almost exclusively gone with veterans like Weston Richburg, Alex Mack and, most recently, Jake Brendel. It’s included spending big money on players like Richburg and Mack while trying to get by with Brendel instead of landing a younger, potentially more talented option.
Likewise, Shanahan typically is harsh on his wide receivers. Samuel flashed moments his rookie year in 2019, but he didn’t truly catch on until the Niners traded for veteran wideout Emmanuel Sanders halfway through the year.
Brandon Aiyuk, San Francisco’s No. 1 wide receiver still on the roster this offseason, took nearly two years to hit a full stride, but now he’s likely going to be sidelined early this season because of ACL and MCL tears suffered midway through 2024.
Ricky Pearsall, the Round 1 draftee who missed the first half of last season because of a life-threatening gunshot wound the previous August, might be the de facto best option to kick off 2025.
Now, there is some solace here. The bulk of the 49ers’ roster needs are on defense, an area where Shanahan can put faith in the return of defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, who aided him in building one of the league’s top defenses from the start in 2017 through 2020. Shanahan would prefer not to concern himself too much with the defense, which he arguably had to do the previous two years with coordinators Steve Wilks and Nick Sorensen, both of whom were ousted after a single season.
That said, Shanahan is going to have to rely on rookies and young players a lot more in 2025 than he has previously.
There simply isn’t any other viable choice.
