Kyle Shanahan, head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, looks on during the game against the New York Giants at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, September 21, 2023. /CFP
The San Francisco 49ers have signed contract extensions with their head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch, the team announced on Friday without disclosing details of their new deals.
The announcement was made after the 49ers beat the New York Giants 30-12 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Thursday, giving the team a 3-0 start to the 2023 National Football League regular season, the second such performance in four years.
When Shanahan and Lynch were appointed to their positions, both for the first time in their careers, in 2017, they signed six-year contracts with the 49ers. Having gone through three coaches, Jim Harbaugh, Jim Tomsula and Chip Kelly, in three seasons between 2014 and 2016, the team's CEO, Jed York, picked the Atlanta Falcons' offensive coordinator, Shanahan, as the new coach.
In the same year, York fired GM Trent Baalke and replaced him with Lynch, who was a color commentator for Fox on the NFL. The 49ers finished the 2017 and 2018 seasons with 6-10 and 4-12 records, respectively, missing the playoffs, of course. However, in the following 2019 campaign, they lifted their record to 13-3 and advanced all the way to Super Bowl LIV but lost to the Kansas City Chiefs.
John Lynch, general manager of the San Francisco 49ers, speaks to the media during the NFL Combine at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, Indiana, February 28, 2023. /CFP
The 49ers missed the postseason in 2020 but bounced back to it in the following 2021 and 2022 seasons and went as far as the National Football Conference Championship on both occasions.
"Trust is earned and it's reestablished in any relationship that you have," York said of working with Shanahan and Lynch at the league meeting in March. "But that's what you need in order to be successful. You have to be able to make mistakes in order to get to a championship. I've been around folks where you're looking at every single draft decision that you make or every single trade that you make, and you're looking at it from an individual standpoint versus we've been in three NFC Championship Games and one Super Bowl in the last four years. That's a pretty good run," he added. "It's not ultimately where we want to be, but it's a pretty good run."
The 49ers will host the Arizona Cardinals at home in Week 4 on October 1.