49ers' Kyle Shanahan showing he is more than just a great play caller

What a season Shanahan is having.

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Kyle Shanahan is often praised as one of the best head coaches in the NFL, but it is typically for the same reason.

Shanahan is known as the best play caller in the NFL, and his ability to scheme up offense outweighs the other traits he brings as a coach. However, Shanahan has to be more than just a good play caller to bring the level of success that he has to the San Francisco 49ers.

That showed brightly in the 49ers win over the Atlanta Falcons, as his ability to motivate the team was the shining moment of the game. 

Kyle Shanahan inspires San Francisco 49ers to prime time win

When the 49ers lost Fred Warner to a season-ending foot injury it appeared as though the team was finally going to hit their breaking point. The defense would be without their two best players and neither of them would be back in a few weeks to help them. They were on their own. 

This can devastate a unit, especially a young group coming off of a loss. However, Shanahan was adamant about not letting that happen and he used video from Fred Warner’s rookie season to drill the point home. 

Kyle Shanahan showed the young guys Fred Warner’s first game as a rookie and compared it to last week’s film:

“I turned on Fred’s first game in 2018 and I showed all his clips from that game and it wasn’t what you would think. He had no dreads. He was wearing number 48. Had no… pic.twitter.com/gWp24pL1oq

— Coach Yac 🗣 (@Coach_Yac) October 18, 2025

It is a great piece of coaching and it can resignate with everyone. Fred Warner was a third-round pick and plenty of scouting profiles will tell you they do not know if he has the size, strength or even toughness to hang in the box as a linebacker. That is what people thought about Warner. In today’s NFL, those critiques around the All-Pro sound hilarious. That is the point that Shanahan drove home. Everyone starts somewhere. 

Warner did not just come out and dominate the NFL on his first snap. He played one good snap, then another, and another. As time passed, he started to learn more and the good snaps became great. Then, the reputation changed. Now, it is hard to envision anyone as good as him. 

This can happen to any 49ers player on the roster, they just have to attack the game in the way that Warner did. This obviously motivated a defense that is starting a host of backups and plenty of rookies as well. San Francisco held Atlanta to ten points, and the unit dominated the day without their two best players. 

This season is starting to go down as one of the best for the star head coach, and it is moments like this, and wins like this that are shining just how good of a coach Shanahan is.