Not that there was much lingering suspense about the futures of Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch going into 2025, but 49ers owner Jed York ended any potential question on the matter Monday afternoon.
About 90 minutes before the 49ers-Lions kickoff at Levi’s Stadium, I spoke to York in the tunnel outside the 49ers’ locker room. York was crystal-clear when I asked if Shanahan and Lynch would be back in their roles for the 2025 season.
“They’re not going anywhere,” York said.
I asked: So I can write that you said this?
“You can write that, for sure,” York said. “They’re not going anywhere.”
This wasn’t a formal interview and was conducted as Lynch and various players — including Brock Purdy — raced past. I didn’t record the conversation or take notes, other than specifically telling York that I would quote him exactly as I’ve done at the top of this column.
Over the next several minutes, York generally elaborated that while nobody in the organization is happy with the results this season, and not every decision worked out, he’s not tossing out everything as a knee-jerk reaction.
He noted that the injuries to Christian McCaffrey, Brandon Aiyuk, Javon Hargrave, and several others were devastating and that the team just couldn’t turn things around after some early losses. But York said Shanahan and Lynch have remained steady throughout this process and continue to be the best leaders for the team going into 2025.
York said the 49ers still have a quality roster and believe they’re set up to be right back in contention next season.
When I asked whether he expects a quick resolution Purdy’s pending negotiations — which can’t begin until after the 49ers’ regular-season finale Sunday in Arizona — York demurred, saying only that he hopes Purdy is the team’s quarterback for a long time.
None of this is a surprise, of course. York went through a carousel of coaches and executives before hiring Shanahan and Lynch shortly after the 2016 season and has no desire to repeat that. He’s got his coach and general manager. Shanahan and Lynch slowly rebuilt the 49ers’ roster, then burst through in 2019, making it to that season’s Super Bowl with QB Jimmy Garoppolo and a host of young stars.
They suffered an injury-ravaged season in 2020, then traded three first-round picks to move up in the 2021 draft and select Trey Lance, who failed to grab hold of the job. But they drafted Purdy with the last pick in the 2022 draft and watched him bloom into their long-term starting QB. Purdy led the 49ers to the NFC Championship Game the next January and to the Super Bowl after the 2023 season.
This season, the 49ers (6-9 heading into Monday’s game) are headed to a potential top-12 draft pick and their second losing record out of the last six. Overall, the 49ers have made the playoffs four times in the eight-season Shanahan/Lynch era — but have won at least two postseason games in each of those playoff seasons.
Within 49ers HQ, even as the losses have piled up, Shanahan and Lynch have remained in lockstep — and are seen chatting together before almost every practice. And, in vast contrast to the public whispering during Jim Harbaugh’s final years with the 49ers, there have been no indications, public or private, of any tension between the team’s three leaders.
Also, the two men both signed contract extensions in 2023 that guarantee them money through 2026 — and probably longer. Shanahan is believed to be making about $15 million a year through 2027.
“I don’t want to be any place in the world more than here,” Shanahan said when asked this month about rumors he might leave for another team. “And my family is just as strong if not a lot stronger [about that]. They’re going to have to kick me out of here.”
Shanahan’s not going anywhere, at least for another year. Neither is Lynch. It wasn’t a mystery, but now York is on the record about the certainty.