All 49ers

Grading the 49ers Coaches at the Bye Week

The 49ers have underperformed, and that's on the coaches. Fortunately for them, there's a lot of football left this season.

Grant Cohn

Oct 6, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan stands on the sideline during the second quarter against the Arizona Cardinals at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
Oct 6, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan stands on the sideline during the second quarter against the Arizona Cardinals at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
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The 49ers have the week off, so let's grade them position by position based solely on what they've done this season. We've graded the quarterback, the running backs, the wide receivers, the tight ends, the offensive linemen, the defensive linemen, the linebackers, the defensive backs and the special teams.

POSITION: Head coach/coordinator

NAMES: Kyle Shanahan, Nick Sorensen, Brian Schneider.

GRADE: C-Minus

COMMENTS: Brian Schneider is doing such a poor job with the special teams, the 49ers probably would fire him if a better special teams coach were available midseason.

Nick Sorensen has been inconsistent in his first eight games as a defensive coordinator. He took over a defense that gave up the third-fewest points in the league last season. Now the 49ers defense ranks 17th in points allowed because it struggles big time on third down and in the red zone. Which seems to be a coaching issue considering all the talent the 49ers have in their back seven.

Kyle Shanahan has struggled to find ways to score the ball in the red zone without Christian McCaffrey on the field. More importantly, Shanahan has struggled to motivate his team to play with urgency and attention to detail through the first eight games. That's why they've had so much trouble closing out opponents. Which means the 49ers have underperformed, and that's on the coaches. Fortunately for them, there's a lot of football left this season.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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