A former Washington Redskins offensive coordinator is said to be on the hot seat.
Sunday, the Seattle Seahawks drove down the field and, in the game’s final seconds, defeated the San Francisco 49ers, dropping the 49ers to 5-5 this season.
A couple of hours later, Grant Cohn, publisher of 49ers on SI, tweeted, “If the 49ers miss the playoffs, they should fire Kyle Shanahan. Period.”
Twitter was ablaze on Sunday evening, as 49er fans declared their disappointment with this year’s team in general. In particular, many voicing they wouldn’t mind if Shanahan was not San Francisco’s coach next season. That was putting it nicely, by the way.
Many are tweeting things they should not, being mean-spirited, unfair, and frankly hateful towards Shanahan. Yes, they are exercising their First Amendment right to say what they think. However, aren’t they also revealing how unfair and unkind they are as people?
Yes, the 49ers are struggling, and yes, injuries have been a major issue. They are a reality.
If Shanahan’s 2024 team does not make the playoffs, there will be changes made. However, that doesn’t mean necessarily the change made will be the head coach. They could choose to make personnel changes.
And yes, they could fire Kyle Shanahan. However, the 49ers could still win the NFC West, where the Cardinals lead at 6-4 and the 49ers, Rams and Seahawks are tied at 5-5.
Shanahan was the Redskins’ offensive coordinator during the 2010-2013 seasons. He was subsequently fired along with head coach Mike Shanahan, Matt LaFleur, and others after a horrible 3-13 2013 season, when Robert Griffin had refused to run the offense that Kyle had designed for him in 2012, bringing Griffin his lone season of NFL success.
Shanahan was the Houston Texans’ offensive coordinator for the 2008 and 2009 seasons. After Washington, he was the offensive coordinator for the Browns in 2014 and the Falcons in 2015 and 2016 before becoming the 49ers’ head coach for the 2017 season.