By Brian Murphy
Wow, the 2026 49ers season has changed. Just like that.
The news on Saturday, July 25 that Kyle Shanahan was in a serious car accident some 11 days earlier and would be unable to fulfill his head coaching duties while he recovered was jarring enough. Then came the processing of it all: what happened? How, in a 24/7 TMZ social media era, did nobody report this? How will this affect Shanahan, and how will Shanahan’s absence affect a team that is trying to win a Super Bowl with an aging nucleus?
And then came Tuesday, when Shanahan called a group of beat writers into his office for what amounted to a therapy session. The coach wanted to clear the air and take fault for the accident. Shanahan also revealed to the group that he grapples with the emotion of the crash and what could have happened, and spoke of the seriousness of his concussion.
Whew. That’s a lot.
It puts trying to beat the Rams and Seahawks into proverbial perspective.
And yet, in the end, that’s still Shanahan’s charge: once healthy, can he be good enough and at full strength enough to guide the 49ers past two teams who are either younger (Seattle) or have more talent (Rams) — and are looked upon more favorably by the oddsmakers?
The easy take is that Shanahan’s accident will only slow down, or derail the 49ers’ ability to put the best team on the field.
Thus far, he has only been able to be on-field for portions of training camp practice in Santa Clara, and even told the beat writers that the loud, thumping music at practice — a hallmark of the Shanahan era — is “killing me”. Watching game film, he told the writers, is also fatiguing. Considering we have zero idea how fast and how well Shanahan can come back from a concussion, none of this is overly encouraging. Sometimes, these things linger for months.
There’s an alternate view, though.
Maybe something intensely special comes out of this.
Shanahan is unquestionably the best play-caller in the business and one of the premier head coaches in the league, even without a Super Bowl title. That’s never been an issue. Critics of his reign point to late-game decisions or coin flips in overtimes or defensive breakdowns at key times, as I was just saying to the chain gang working the 3rd-and-15 play in Super Bowl 54.
But he has grinded it, hard. He has chafed against rookies who don’t meet his standards. He has been unyielding at times, stubbornly trying to throw the ball with the lead, or running Christian McCaffrey into exhaustion, or choosing the wrong defensive coordinator. You all have your nitpicks with Kyle, but he remains one of the iconic coaches in franchise history.
What if this accident and its aftermath brings out a different dimension of Kyle Shanahan? Maybe a more human side. Maybe the team connects to him in a more profound way. Nick Bosa came on our show Monday in Santa Clara and said that while he and Fred Warner “aren’t old”, they know the NFL only presents so many opportunities. Their awareness of a ticking clock, and the same for McCaffrey and George Kittle and Trent Williams and Dre Greenlaw . . . it could add up to something greater as Shanahan recovers and makes his way back.
I’m not saying Kyle Shanahan says “Win one for the Gipper” every Sunday in the locker room, but I am saying there’s a chance something bigger could come out a near-tragedy.
The more obvious route is that a limited Shanahan slows the 49ers’ ability to get off to a fast start, and that a hampered Shanahan puts the 49ers in a strange emotional spot, unable to rally for the intense focus and strength it takes to win an NFL game.
Another storyline exists, though. Something deeper could happen. The days ahead will tell how Shanahan heals, and how he interacts with his team, and vice versa. Don’t rule out the chance of something special blossoming, as a post-accident Kyle Shanahan looks at life and his job differently, and maybe finds a new dimension in reaching his team.
Regardless, it’s all well wishes for the man, for his family, and for the young woman on the other end of the accident.
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