The 49ers have a Leadership Gap
Because Kyle Shanahan is not a leader, as far as I can tell, there's a leadership gap on the 49ers. And they need leaders in the locker room whether Shanahan is a leader or not.
And there are no leaders in the 49ers locker room currently. George Kittle is not a leader. Great player with a wonderful, youthful exuberance. But not a leader.
Richard Sherman and Joe Staley were the leaders last season and they're both gone. Sherman is on Injured Reserve for now and Staley retired this offseason. They were the grownups in the locker room. One won a Super Bowl. The other was a career-long 49er. So there's a leadership gap.
What does it mean to have leadership?
This is something Steve Young used to tell my dad all the time: "It means we have a standard. It means we are the Forty Freaking Niners. We have a standard of practice, of commitment of our mentality and how we play."
Shanahan, as a head coach, doesn't seem to have that standard, or can't convey that standard. So he needed Staley and Sherman to embody the standard and remind people of it the way Young did, the way Joe Montana did, the way Jerry Rice did, the way Bill Walsh did.
This team not only doesn't have the standard, it lost track of it. Misplaced it.
If Staley and Sherman had been on the field last Sunday, there's no way the 49ers would have gotten out by the Miami Freaking Dolphins. Those two wouldn't have allowed it.
Here's what Staley thought of the 49ers performance:
Good question, Joe.
