All 49ers

Kyle Shanahan Explains How the 49ers Will Benefit from a Long Offseason

The last time the 49ers had a long offseason was 2021. That year, they decided to trade three first-round picks plus a third-rounder to the Miami Dolphins for the privilege of drafting Trey Lance.

Grant Cohn

Dec 22, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan watches from the sideline against the Miami Dolphins during the fourth quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
Dec 22, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan watches from the sideline against the Miami Dolphins during the fourth quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
In this story:

The 49ers probably won't change much about their team in the upcoming months.

It seems they've decided that they're 6-10 simply because of injuries and an abbreviated offseason following a heartbreaking Super Bowl collapse. Forget the fact that the Chiefs had just as short of an offseason and they're currently 15-1 -- the 49ers are giving themselves the Super Bowl hangover excuse. That's why they're excited to have a long offseason which starts on Monday.

“I'd be much more excited to not have one and to go all the way to February again, but that is tough," head coach Kyle Shanahan said on Friday. "When you go that that long, everyone needs to get away and by the time you come back there's usually right when free agency’s starting and you're not totally quite there yet. So, it's going to be our first time since I think COVID being off in January. And it gives you more time to figure things out. It gives you time to go through the things like the cutups and stuff. You can finish most of that stuff all before the Super Bowl. And then you're ready to go to other stuff like the Draft and free agency and all that as soon as the Super Bowl ends. So just being a lot more ahead of that is real exciting and I'm ready to get to it. We've known we're out of the playoffs here for a little bit and everything's about finishing this year up the right way and not cutting anything short, finishing your job. But I also have been able to look to when I can start improving next year and making sure we're not in this position again. And I know that starts Monday.”

The last time the 49ers had a long offseason was 2021. That year, they decided to trade three first-round picks plus a third-rounder to the Miami Dolphins for the privilege of drafting Trey Lance. Maybe extra time to plan isn't what the 49ers need.

Download and follow The Cohn Zohn Podcast.

Published
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.

Home/News