Kyle Shanahan Picks One-Time Super Bowl Glory Over Consistent Playoff Success

Kyle Shanahan’s San Francisco 49ers beat the odds by winning 12 games last year despite carrying injuries to several starters. Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, and Mykel Williams missed a large portion of the season while quarterback Brock Purdy played sparingly due to a lingering issue with his toe.

In the wildcard round, the Niners took down the defending champions, the Philadelphia Eagles. However, in the following game, they suffered a humiliating defeat against the Seattle Seahawks.

Such has been the story of Shanahan and the 49ers since he took over as the head coach back in 2017. They always promise to remain in the thick of winning a ring, but never truly get over the finish line.

Recently, the 46-year-old coach was asked a very important question by Tom Tolbert. Tolbert questioned Shanahan whether he would prefer to continue the way things are, qualify for the playoffs every year without winning a ring, or win the big game and play postseason football just one year in the next ten years.

Shanahan gave a witty and yet serious reply.

Since you said one scenario was having a Super Bowl, I haven’t heard one word since you said since… So, that’s how we think, that’s how we live out life, but when you put it into perspective and the fans and stuff, it’s just I have seen teams fortunately win a Super Bowl in a random year and go through six different coaches over the next nine years, and no one really cares about this random year…

Kyle Shanahan said

Kyle Shanahan was asked if he could pick between winning 1 Super Bowl and only making the playoffs 1 other time in the next 9 seasons or being competitive and making deep playoff runs for 10 seasons, which would he pick:

“Since you said 1 scenario was having a Super Bowl, I… pic.twitter.com/BAWPJIamNB

— Coach Yac 🗣 (@Coach_Yac) May 25, 2026

Shanahan has qualified for three separate Super Bowls since starting his coaching career. Once as an offensive coordinator with the Atlanta Falcons in 2016-17, twice as the head coach of the 49ers (2019-2020 and 2023-24). He was on the losing end on all three occasions.

You always want a team that competes… In order to do that, you gotta have a good organization, and that’s what we do have.

Kyle Shanahan added

Building a strong team every year to make it into the playoffs is never an easy task. However, fans will eventually get tired of it. For example, Mike Tomlin won a Super Bowl very early in his Pittsburgh Steelers coaching career, but by the end of it, he struggled to deliver one playoff win. As a matter of fact, the Steelers haven’t won a postseason game since 2016 despite qualifying for January games each time. Tomlin willingly stepped down from his position earlier this year.

49ers fullback details why Kyle Shanahan is an elite coach

Fullback Kyle Juszczyk signed with the 49ers in the same year Shanahan took charge of the team. Since then, Juszczyk has earned 10 straight Pro Bowls and three All-Pro honors.

In a recent appearance on the Rich Eisen Show, Juszczyk shed light on what makes Shanahan an elite head coach.

I never leave a conversation with Kyle [Shanahan] without having learned something or just being impressed with how his brain works and how he looks at things. He’ll go through, and he’ll tell you every single assignment of the defense. And he’ll use their assignment against them for how we can exploit them and be successful on offense. I think that’s the difference between him and some of the play-callers in this league. He understands the defense just as good, if not better than most defensive coordinators.

Juszczyk said

💻 @JuiceCheck44

What makes Kyle Shanahan and Brock Purdy such a successful HC/QB duo? The @49ers All-Pro fullback weighs in:#NFL #FTTB pic.twitter.com/PxTrOPlw2c

— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) May 22, 2026

The 49ers had the 11th-best rushing defense and the 13th-best scoring defense in the league in 2025. Sure, Shanahan has credited Robert Saleh (now with the Tennessee Titans) for the high standard of the defense, but that was just one year. Shanahan and the 49ers front office are primarily the reason behind building a strong roster.

The Niners locked down Shanahan to a contract extension ahead of the 2023 season. It will run through 2027.

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