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History Suggests 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan Will Not Win a Super Bowl

In three Super Bowls, Shanahan's offense has scored a whopping 9 points in the fourth quarter. That will be his ultimate legacy unless he wins a Super Bowl.

Grant Cohn

Feb 6, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan speaks during a press conference before Super Bowl LVIII at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 6, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan speaks during a press conference before Super Bowl LVIII at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
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Most 49ers fans believe it's merely a matter of time before Kyle Shanahan wins a Super Bowl.

He already has been to three and he hasn't even turned 45 yet. But he lost each game and subsequently joined a group of coaches who never have won a Super Bowl according to NFL.com.

"Following the 49ers' overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII, Shanahan became the fifth coach in NFL history to lose his first three Super Bowl appearances as a head coach or coordinator, per NFL Research. None of the previous four coaches ever won a Super Bowl. Shanahan is in hallowed company in that regard, joining the Buffalo Bills' Marv Levy, the Minnesota Vikings' Bud Grant, Ted Marchibroda as an offensive coordinator with Washington and Buffalo, and longtime Vikings defensive coordinator Jerry Burns. Levy and Grant are Hall of Famers, while Marchibroda and Burns are highly regarded, but nevertheless they each fell short of Lombardi glory."

- Grant Gordon, NFL.com

Good news for Shanahan's legacy. Bad news for the 49ers.

Shanahan is so highly regarded that he might just get into the Hall of Fame one day without winning a Super Bowl. Although his dad has three Lombardi Trophies and still isn't in the Hall of Fame yet. And Levy and Grant each won four conference championships as head coaches. Shanahan has won two.

And a major part of Kyle Shanahan's legacy is how he lost his three Super Bowls. In each game, he had an elite offense that got shut down. His offense never has scored more than 22 points in a Super Bowl, and he needed overtime to get to 22.

In three Super Bowls, Shanahan's offense has scored a whopping 9 points in the fourth quarter. That will be his ultimate legacy unless he wins a Super Bowl.

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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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