If it weren’t for Brandon Aiyuk, a topic of discussion might be whether San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is on the hot seat. Again.
We usually have this discussion during the season at some point, but this year, 2026, it’s the offseason, with speculation about how warm Shanahan’s seat is. It’s pretty simple—there is none.
Why think otherwise? One could guess.
“Anybody that says Kyle Shanahan is on the hot seat, you guys are not the smartest,” Kittle said, via USA Today’s Nick Brinkerhoff.
“It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Well, it doesn’t make sense to a lot of people. It never has. There’s, of course, a vocal (minority?) thinking that since the 49ers lost two Super Bowls and they are “just” in contention every year, they should look for someone better. Some of the 49ers’ draft whiffs also seem to throw—well, whatever is needed to argue the 49ers should move on.
Kittle wasn’t the only person over the last few weeks to shoot down the notion (if it ever existed). Former 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman said even if the 49ers missed the playoffs in 2026, their head coach would be on an iceberg.
“If he somehow was on the hot seat,” Sherman elaborated. “There would be 20 seats in the NFL getting hotter as it got hotter. Because if he ever got fired, so would they.”
Meaning, 20 teams would be trying to hire Shanahan in a heartbeat if he became available.
The simple response to “fire Kyle Shanahan” is “give an alternative.” See above: 20 other teams would fire their coach because their alternative could be Kyle Shanahan. Many of you might remember how the 49ers mutually parted ways with Jim Harbaugh following a disappointing 2014 season, where they posted a crowd-pleasing 8-8 record. They thought they had an alternative—his name was Jim Tomsula, and his result was one of the worst offenses in team history. The 49ers knew they could do better, so they went with Chip Kelly the next year. 2-14 isn’t exactly an improvement.
The current 49ers under Shanahan are criticized as well —most of it is relevant—but it’s usually about how they perform in the Super Bowl or the playoffs—the endings to seasons that were not possible under the two coaches who preceded Shanahan.
And if the 49ers did get rid of Shanahan, there’s still that substation “theory”. If you looked at how the 49ers did in 2026, list a coach that could have done what Shanahan did with that decimated roster.
Yes, sub-.500 seasons, front office dysfunction, rotating door of head coaches—let’s not go back to that.
