Kyle Shanahan feels "very grateful" for contract extension
Kyle Shanahan became head coach of the 49ers in 2017. Before he started his seventh season, he signed yet another extension.
Shanahan met with reporters on Wednesday, for the first time since the new deals for him and G.M. John Lynch were announced. He explained that the deal was done before Week 1.
"We did it before the Pittsburgh game, so I'd already celebrated with my family and stuff like that, which is huge," Shanahan said. "I feel very grateful. Just being a coach anywhere for a long time, I know what that means and extremely grateful for that to have that opportunity and mainly for my family to be somewhere for so long, which is cool. But, doing it before this season even started, I think meant a lot to me. Just shows you the people that we're with, that we believe in each other, despite what could happen whether we were 0-3 or 3-0, we'd still be in the same situation. I really like where we live and really like the people we work with, and they're committed to giving us a chance to go for it every single year and that's all I could ever ask for."
Shanahan had not been with any one team for more than four years. He'll remain in San Francisco indefinitely, and possibly for many years to come.
He was asked how difficult it was to come into a situation that had seen three coaches leave in three prior years.
“It's tough because you don't know the people until you get in those situations," Shanahan said. "So sometimes when you come into a situation that looks really hard to win in the first couple years you're nervous about it because you know how the pressure goes when you lose, no matter what people say. It gets tough to stick with the plan and that's what made it so exciting the first time, meeting with Jed [York] and the commitment he gave us and what he said. I really feel like that made us make the right decisions for those first couple years and helped build it the right way. And that's really what got us to come here, allowed us to be patient, do it right, and he hasn't changed ever since. I love being in a building where you trust each other, you can always try to do what's right, might not always be right, but the intent of what we're doing, why we're doing it, how we're doing it, we all believe in each other in that way. To me that's the most important thing in giving you a chance.”
In 2023, the 49ers have a chance to get to the Super Bowl and win it. They've been knocking on the door for several seasons. This could be the year they finally kick it in, giving the 49ers their first championship in 29 years.
