How Much do the 49ers Pay Kyle Shanahan?
We know Kyle Shanahan’s contract extension with the 49ers makes him one of the five-highest-paid head coaches in the NFL. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that.
We don’t know how much money Shanahan actually makes.
NFL teams don’t have to report the value of their head coaches’ contracts, because they don’t count against the salary cap. They mostly are a mystery.
But Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer is connected, and believes the 49ers made Shanahan one of roughly eight head coaches who earn at least $10 million per season.
“I’d guess he’s in the NFL coaches’ eight-figure club," Breer wrote, “which is occupied by New England’s Bill Belichick, New Orleans’s Sean Payton, Kansas City’s Andy Reid, Baltimore’s John Harbaugh, Seattle's Pete Carroll and Las Vegas’s Jon Gruden. And I don't know for sure, but I'd venture a strong guess that Rams coach Sean McVay is in the club too, with a deal right around Shanahan's.”
Meaning Shanahan could make as much as $10 million, $11, maybe even $12 million per season.
Here are the credentials of the coaches most likely in the eight-figure club:
Bill Belichick: Six Super Bowls, 400 wins, 273 losses and a career winning percentage of .683.
Sean Payton: One Super Bowl, 208 wins, 131 losses and a career winning percentage of .630.
Andy Reid: One Super Bowl, 336 wins, 207 losses and a career winning percentage of .618.
John Harbaugh: One Super Bowl, 192 wins, 118 losses and a career winning percentage of .615.
Pete Carroll: One Super Bowl, 224 wins, 133 losses and a career winning percentage of .596.
Jon Gruden: One Super Bowl, 106 wins, 102 losses and a career winning percentage of .510. Yikes. What a fraud. He won his Super Bowl with Tony Dungy’s players in 2002, has a losing record since that season and still lives off a reputation Gruden built 20 years ago. Poor Raiders.
Sean McVay: Zero Super Bowls, 33 wins, 15 losses and a career winning percentage of .688.
Kyle Shanahan: Zero Super Bowls, 23 wins, 25 losses and a career winning percentage of .479.
Shanahan is the only one of those eight coaches who has no rings and a winning percentage below .500. Remarkable.
Not so long ago, a coach had to win a Super Bowl before a team would give him a huge contract. In 2012, Jim Harbaugh asked the 49ers for an extension after he lost the Super Bowl. And at the time, his record as a head coach was 24-7-1. And the 49erss still turned him down. They felt he hadn’t accomplished enough. Team CEO Jed York said the 49ers hang only Super Bowl banners, not NFC Championship banners.
Now, a coach doesn’t need to win a Super Bowl to get a huge contract extension in the NFL. He has to have a high-scoring offense. Shanahan and McVay proved that the past couple years. Shanahan is set for life with a career record of 23-25. He makes more than Eagles head coach Doug Pederson, who won the Super Bowl.
My, how times have changed.
