A Complete History of Kyle Shanahan's Bad Quarterback Decisions with the 49ers
Kyle Shanahan and Bill Walsh have similar resumes through their first five seasons as 49ers head coaches.
Shanahan from 2017 to 2021: 39 wins, 42 losses, 2 NFC Championship appearances, 1 Super Bowl appearance.
Walsh from 1979 to 1983: 34 wins, 39 losses, 2 NFC Championship appearances, 1 Super Bowl appearance.
Here's the difference: Walsh won his Super Bowl appearance in 1981 because he drafted Joe Montana and developed him into a great player. Shanahan lost his Super Bowl appearance in 2019 because he traded for Jimmy Garoppolo who isn't great, never improved and yet somehow still is on the team.
How did Shanahan and the 49ers get here? Why haven't they been able to find a franchise quarterback they trust?
Here's what happened:
2017: Shanahan inhereted a team with the No. 2 pick, and instead of using that on a quarterback, Shanahan decided not to scout Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson, trade down to the No. 3, draft Solomon Thomas, take C.J. Beathard in Round 3, sign Brian Hoyer and wait a year for the main target -- Kirk Cousins.
But halfway through Shanahan's first season, the 49ers were 0-8, so he panicked, abandoned his Cousins plan and traded a second-round pick for Jimmy Garoppolo, who had two career starts and one career shoulder injury, plus his contract was set to expire at the end of the season.
2018: After winning five consecutive meaningless games to end 2017, the 49ers made Garoppolo the highest-paid player in the NFL at the time. He would go on to tear his ACL three games into the 2018 season.
2019: The 49ers carried Garoppolo to the Super Bowl, but lost because Garoppolo had the worst fourth quarter in Super Bowl history. By this time, Shanahan knew exactly how limited Garoppolo was and is.
2020: Coming off a Super Bowl appearance, the 49ers had an opportunity to trade Garoppolo, most likely for a first-round pick, and then sign Tom Brady, who wanted to play for the 49ers, but Shanahan decided Brady was washed up after a down season in New England, so Shanahan stuck with Garoppolo, who went on to have another injury-filled season while Brady won his seventh Super Bowl and his first with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
2021: The 49ers had an another opportunity to trade Garoppolo and then acquire Matthew Stafford, but the Rams beat them to the punch and sent two first-round picks, a third-round pick and Jared Goff to the Lions for Stafford. Afterward, the 49ers traded even more draft capital -- three firsts and one third -- to the Miami Dolphins for the right to draft Trey Lance, who was inexperienced and unproven. After that trade, Shanahan never showed confidence in Lance again, and stuck with Garoppolo, and dragged him to the NFC Championship for a second time, but lost to Stafford's Rams because Garoppolo was freaking awful in the fourth quarter once again. Two weeks later, the Rams won the Super Bowl.
2022: The 49ers seemed to have an opportunity to trade Garoppolo to the Colts a couple weeks before free agency, most likely for a third-round pick, but held out for more. Then Deshaun Watson hit the market, and he was interested in joining the 49ers, but they couldn't trade for him because they already had spent their next two first-round picks on Lance. And once Watson hit the market, Matt Ryan suprisingly became available shortly after, and the Colts traded their third-round pick for him instead of Garoppolo.
And so now it's Year 6 of Shanahan's tenure, and he still is stuck with Garoppolo, and he still is scared to make Lance the starting quarterback.
Shanahan only has himself to blame.
