‘It’s a different window’: Kyle Shanahan on 49ers’ past, present, and start of a new cycle

The shades, as always, were pulled down and the video screens were ready to be fired up in Kyle Shanahan’s office, but there was sunshine blaring through, anyway. On the eve of the first practice of training camp, he seemed refreshed, lively, light-hearted, and definitely optimistic.

No, he was not in Dark Kyle mode. At least not anymore.

And yes, after last season’s collapse and the longest, dreariest 49ers offseason in years, Shanahan outlined the pain of watching so many valued veterans leave the team but also sounded legitimately (and a bit uncharacteristically) cheery about the team’s present and future now that the cutting is done.

“We’ve known this was coming for a while,” Shanahan told me on my podcast Tuesday afternoon. “You know, the time that it hit me the most was, like, halfway through the year in 2023 (during that Super Bowl run) … there was a lot of issues coming up on the horizon that you could see possibly in ’24 and ’25 — especially any time you have a quarterback in a rookie deal that allows you to have all these guys. But you knew that was ending, so there had been some stress about that for a while.”

The offseason losses of so many proven veterans were awful for Shanahan. But also inevitable.

“I’ve been preparing for it for a while, but I’ll tell you what, when March happened in that first day of free agency, and you still know it’s gonna happen, you’re preparing for it,” Shanahan said. “But you’re still hoping it’s not and you’re still hoping you can get lucky with things, and you’re hoping that you can sign some guys or not lose guys and everything.”

The 49ers did not get lucky.

“When I look at it from like a business standpoint, and logically, everything happened that probably was expected to happen. But it was tough when you look at that board, when I see that board, it’s the roster that sits in front of me that I look at all the time. And when I just see empty holes there, and not just empty holes, but empty holes that used to be (Dre) Greenlaw, that used to be Deebo (Samuel), like some guys who are been here for a while, who we’ve really have counted on. And now they’re not there, and we didn’t replace them necessarily in free agency.

“That’s a stressful thing, but it was something we didn’t have a choice on. The money adds up.”

The upbeat July 2025 reset view: This is the start of a new and necessary 49ers’ cycle of contention, because Shanahan says this season should be similar to 2018, he and Lynch’s second season in charge. That’s when they built a young and talented roster and set the stage for their first Super Bowl run in 2019 and the five-year stretch of contention that unfolded.

That cycle disintegrated last season. And Shanahan said he warned his players about this the day after losing the Super Bowl in overtime to the Kansas City Chiefs in February 2024 — they were going to have to pay Brock Purdy soon, and that was going to have consequences throughout the roster. Then last year’s injuries hit, which led to the offseason departures, a draft that the 49ers hope will produce four or five instant starters, and the dawn of a new stage.

Shanahan believes that signing Purdy, Fred Warner, and George Kittle to large extensions this offseason was proof that the 49ers can start a new cycle without a massive rebuilding project. They can get back to the playoffs this season and set the stage for another long run of contention — maybe another trip to the Super Bowl, this time ending with a victory.

“We still spent a lot of money this year — we paid a quarterback,” Shanahan said. “But it all had to be guys that we think we can keep here that are at least part of a three-year window, possibly more; but you got to always think in that way. …

“You can’t just go spend money on guys, especially when you have really good players paid. And that’s kind of where we’re at now. And I wasn’t that excited for it, but after going through it all and where we are and the draft and everything, I love where we’re at now. It’s because I believe where it could take us and where we’re going to go with it.”

Just three drafts ago, the 49ers’ roster was so settled that kicker Jake Moody was the only rookie that Shanahan and Lynch expected and needed to play right away. Slight difference now: At Wednesday’s first practice, the 49ers’ top six picks — Mykel Williams, Alfred Collins, Nick Martin, Upton Stout, CJ West, and Jordan Watkins — could all be put in the main rotation immediately.

Shanahan, who hasn’t always been fond of counting on rookies, is absolutely ready for this — mostly, because he needs those guys out there.

“No, we couldn’t hit everything in the draft; you never do,” Shanahan said. “But we hit a lot of things that I thought we needed just to be competitive in certain areas, and we did.

“Now I’m so excited to develop those guys. I’m so excited how OTAs went. I can’t wait to get started with practice tomorrow. I hope they can develop. I hope they can stay healthy, just like all players, but they had the ability to grow and become those guys, like those guys had to do when they came here.”

The 49ers are trying to follow a blueprint, and it’s one Shanahan has already used.

“I mean, when you talk about Kittle, you talk about Deebo, you talk about Fred Warner, all these guys had worked to get to these spots. And now we have another group of guys who are doing it. We had guys last year (who) did it — (Malik) Mustapha, Ricky Pearsall, I mean, (Dominick) Puni. …. And next year’s draft is going to be huge. And when you think of a draft in a three-year window where you can get your money right and stuff, which that’s how I look at our ’17,’18, and ’19, and we did build it the right way, and we were allowed to keep our money right, because we didn’t go ridiculous with stuff then.”

Shanahan and Lynch, who are starting their ninth season together here, can’t and won’t pretend that all slates have been wiped clean. They might not get many more years here if they turn in another 6-11 season anytime soon.

But they’ve done this before. Jed York has believed in them the whole time. And this time they’re doing it with a young star quarterback already in place, with Robert Saleh back as defensive coordinator, and with presumably healthier and happier veterans than they had entering last year’s camp.

“When I look back to our first three years here, we came in and we took over the worst defense in the league that was ranked 32nd and we took over the second worst offense in the league that was ranked 31st,” Shanahan said. “After one year, there was one guy left on our offense, and it was Joe Staley. We replaced all 10 (other) guys.

“In ’17 and ’18 on defense, we had (Arik) Armstead, (DeForest) Buckner, and Jimmie Ward (as holdovers from the previous regime), and we replaced the other eight, and we did it in two years. … You’ve got to work really hard and do good at it, but that’s what we had to do there to build it up. And we got to have a chance to win a Super Bowl in ’19. And it wasn’t luck. Those guys were real, and we were able to sustain that because it was real, and we had made good decisions. We were able to pay those guys and keep them within the rules of the league, and that’s why we’ve had a good run here the last six years.

“And when everyone says, ‘Oh, that window is over’. … It’s a different window because of the things I’ve been saying. But how can you say it’s over when there’s still really good players there that have been a part of it? Guys like Trent (Williams), guys like Christian (McCaffrey), guys like Brock; I can go through our defense, but we know Fred (Warner), and we know (Nick) Bosa, and I do think we have new guys who are establishing themselves.”

Right after last season was over, Shanahan made a point to let Purdy know that no matter what happened with other players’ contracts, the 49ers were 100% committed to him as their QB and to paying him a fair market rate.

“I thought it was important because I knew how hard of a position we were in,” Shanahan said. “I also knew that me, John and Jed wanted to keep Brock here. We wanted him to be our guy. I also knew we’re in a tough financial situation, which I can’t totally explain, but I would say to Brock, you’re probably going to see it in free agency, it’s not gonna be fun. But I want you to know our goal. We all feel this way about you.”

But the new, $265-million deal doesn’t mean that Shanahan is suddenly ready to start giving Purdy enormous freedom to change plays at the line of scrimmage.

“I get the question — even players ask me that, like, they’ll come in, ‘Hey, Brock has new contract, you give him the keys now?'” Shanahan said with a smile. “And it’s just like I laugh at them, because it’s … I get it all. But that’s not really how it works. …

“So it’s all it’s weird to me. I have as much confidence in Brock and I get more and more each year. He was doing all this stuff his first year, when he came in as a third-string quarterback and only played seven games. So it’s we’re not going to add stuff just to add it. If we think it helps us win, hell yeah.”

Shanahan’s system is built to give quarterbacks “hot” options if the play call runs into a defensive alignment it can’t beat. If you have to change up, you automatically know where the ball is supposed to go. And the QB doesn’t have to study every possibility and worry about changing an iffy play call into an even worse one.

“The plan is to not have 100 thoughts, it’s to be locked into your job,” Shanahan said. “And when this look happens, you can have one other thought, touch your ears and run the other thing. And I try to make guys as decisive as possible and clutter the noise in their head.”

The 49ers would’ve loved to sign a top offensive lineman in free agency, Shanahan said, but they couldn’t pay that kind of money. They would’ve loved to keep Aaron Banks and Jaylon Moore — but ditto. Shanahan said they were looking at drafting an O-lineman, but they had to fill a bunch of defensive spots first.

And so … Williams is a year older, Colton McKivitz is a middling right tackle on an expiring deal, and other than Puni at right guard, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of upward momentum on this unit. And very little depth.

But Shanahan has some counterpoints to the idea that the 49ers haven’t spent enough draft and actual capital on their offensive line.

“I mean, if you go from 2019 to 2024, we’re No. 1 team in the league, yards per play,” Shanahan said. “No. 2 is Baltimore, No. 3 is Tampa, and No. 4 is Green Bay and Kansas City tied. And so all four of those are established Hall of Fame quarterbacks (at certain times), and we’ve done it with three different guys in those times.

“Why have we been able to? Because we have a really good O-line, but we’ve spent our money and investments on a really good defense, on good skill players. Could we do that stuff if we didn’t have a really good O-line? Not at all, but everyone sees our investments on it, and we made a big one with Trent — only a fourth-round pick, but we have financially. Jake Brendel, I think, go study all the centers in the league. Jake’s a hell of a player. … If anyone really studies Colton, Colton’s a really good right tackle, and that’s really helped us.”