Hypothetical: Would You Grab Shanahan if We Had the Opportunity ?

Originally posted by pasodoc9er:
Shanahan as OC? yes. As HC, no. If going with a former coach, Gruden would be my choice. Also OC, holmgren. Not as HC, tho.

Shannahan got fired as HC, and the very next year the Broncos are 6-1. Maybe as OC but definitely NOT as HC.

[ Edited by jaghetersofie on Nov 9, 2009 at 07:14:16 ]

Originally posted by SJniner7:

Originally posted by blunt_probe:
I guess I would, but I doubt he ever wins a SB. My guess is it will be like Denver where we're in the hunt every year, but never bringing home any glory.

thank you! Do you guys not know his history? He has proven what...? He can win one superbowl, and that was with Elway all those years? I would swear some of you guys don't do any research before you ask these silly questions...

Because people automatically get a hard on when they hear certain names. Actual track record be damned. Hopefully Holmgren takes the Browns GM job, and Shanny takes the Redskins HC job (rumored to be his if he wants it) so this discussion can be over with.

No because Shanahan would want control over personnel. As questionable as McCloughan has been, I would trust his personnel decisions over Shanahan's.

YES, in a heartbeat. May even throw a party for him when he gets here!

This team needs better coaching NOT from the head coach but the position coaches. The M Nolan culture is basically still in the minds of the players. I like coach Sing's attitude, but he is too inexperienced for what he is facing. I believe he will make a great coach one day but that one day in SF has come and gone about 3 years ago. This losing thing has become a habit that needs to stop in the Bay area.

Gruden? Hmm...he won a SB with Dungy's team. After that, not too much. At least Shanahan seemingly always had Denver competitive. Let's compare coaching records:

Shanahan: 146 wins, 98 losses...2 SB, 7 playoffs

Gruden's 95 W, 81 L 1 SB

Holmgren's 161 W, 111 L 1 SB (GB), NFC 1(GB), 1 (Sea)

I'm not sure Holmgren wants to be a head coach any more (most likely a GM)...Shanahan definitely does. Either guy would be a huge improvement over what we have now...we need an experienced winner...no more rookie coaches. I favor Shanahan because he's got the offensive mindset we need, and he wants to coach again.

The biggest mistake Jed York and Scot McCloughan made this offseason was not even attempting to look at any other candidates for the position. Singletary finished the season on a high note, but he had a 5-4 overall record or something like that during his interim season.

Would I look at Shannahan? It depends how we finish the season. If we are below .500, then I would look at Shannahan and a new GM that knows the WCO inside and out.

But frankly, I don't think York has the balls to do it. McCloughan is right in the middle of his GM contract, and Mike Singletary would still be owed well over $6 million with his contract.

It's too bad we didn't hire Singletary for the 2008-2009 season. That would have allowed us to go after these high prized coaches this offseason with 2 years under the Singletary regime. Again, it just goes to show that our management and ownership style is very passive, and not proactive.

I'm not ready to quit on Sing, but...

His offense is always good. Regardless who their QB is, they produce. Also, I love how he's able to consistantly field great offensive lines. His zone blocking scheme is a beautiful thing to watch. Plus, and similar to the Pats, he always did a good job finding Olineman later in the draft that had the skillset he was looking for.

Shanahan's biggest downfall was assuming responsibility for personnel decisions. He made some very questionable draft selections that left him on the outs with Pat Bowen. His defense though, equally let him down. If Bowen (or anyone) knew that bringing in Nolan would revamp the defense so quickly, Shanahan would still be coaching in Denver.

Ideally, bring him in as the OC and Asst HC, then see what he can do. Realistically, I doubt he'd settle for anything less than being a HC.

I could see Cowher in Carolina. He seems like a perfect fit, IMO.

My answer is no because when you look at the successful teams like the Colts,Saints,Steelers, they have playmakers on both sides of the ball that play consistently well every week, particularly the quarterback,offensive line and defensive pass rush positions. Shanahan is a better offensive coach than anything we have but we don't have the players. When Shanahan won championships he had guys like Elway,Rod Smith,Shannon Sharpe, Terrell Davis, and real good offensive line. We have Vernon Davis, Crabtree, and Gore, but we don't have a good quarterback. A great defense can coverup a mediocre quarterback, see Dilfer, Eli Manning for examples but once the defense becomes ordinary the quarterback gets exposed no matter how many good players you have around him, see Eli Manning as an example. We don't have a great defense and we don't a great offense to cover for that the way Shanahan had in Denver. Shanahan was going to fire his defensive coordinator had they not won the superbowl against the Packers so even he realized that his offense had to do too much. My point is we don't have the players for some super-coach to walk on water with, especially at the quarterback position. Peyton Manning used to coverup some of shortcomings on the Colts defense as did Drew Brees and Elway but notice the fact that Shanahan did not win anything after Elway left so my point is you can have a supercoach all day but if you don't have the right players in key positions you won't win anything. Cowher didn't win anything until Big Ben came because no matter how good you coach you have to have a good quarterback or the greatest defense of alltime to win a championship and ask the Ravens about that fact. I think Singletary is fine, he just needs to find another quarterback and get some better players at safety and on the defensive line.

Originally posted by ZRF80:
No.....and no. This is not a bash Singletary because we lost today thread. Im quite content with Singletary's attitude with this team. I think he has better command this his predecessor, and I think the players respond to him since he's one of those "been there, done that" guy.

With that said, it seems like this season will be like every other since the Mariucci era ended. We're probably not going to the playoffs, and even if we did........chances are we'll get our asses handed to us in the first round. I think back to 2005, when we drafted Alex Smith......and how there were rumors that we were willing to trade down for more draft picks. It seemed disheartening that the draft was so weak when it came to QB prospects, and it made it that much worse knowing that the following year boasted talent that we would be (at the time) salivating for.

Sometimes you get that window of opportunity, and we may just get that next season, knowing that guys like Mike Holmgren, Mike Shanahan, Tony Dungy, and maybe even Bill Cowhers might be thinking about comebacks. Forget Dungy and Cowhers, but I would hate for us to lose a golden opportunity to bring back a classic Bill Walsh tutored coach to the Bay Area, just because we felt that Singletary deserves a fair shot. And it would make it even more worse if we lost that opportunity, only to break from Singletary two years from now, and not have a legit coach to go after.

So keeping the following in mind, would you be willing to part ways with Sing for Shanahan knowing:

1) He's a proven coach in this league. Has HAS won Superbowls, and has put winning teams with winning players on the field. He understands how to run a successful football team.

2) He's an offensive genius. He had that great run of RBs that excelled under his tutelage + oline, only to see them leave and become less than adequate on other rosters.

2A) He brings the WCO tradition back to where it belongs. Im sorry, but this Singletary "Im going to play not to lose" philosophy just doesnt fit with Niner tradition. It's as ludicrous as expecting the Steelers to execute the West Coast offense with perfection. Some teams live and die by their legacy. As adamant as Rooney has been to keep the hard nosed, stuff your face football in Pittsburgh, we should expect just the same with the WCO in San Fran. Shanahan will do just that.

3) He's from the Bill Walsh coaching tree. Nuff said.

4) He brings attention back to Ninerland, and we become an NFL franchise on the map just because of his presence alone.


Holmgren would be a great substitute as well, but I prefer Shanahan. I hope we dont miss the opportunity when it presents itself.........

I think I would , this team has no killer instinct on Offense when given the opportunity to step on the opponents throat they go into a shell , I'll be interested to see what happens Thursday night,

Originally posted by SJniner7:

Originally posted by blunt_probe:
I guess I would, but I doubt he ever wins a SB. My guess is it will be like Denver where we're in the hunt every year, but never bringing home any glory.

thank you! Do you guys not know his history? He has proven what...? He can win one superbowl, and that was with Elway all those years? I would swear some of you guys don't do any research before you ask these silly questions...

Technically it was two Super Bowls, but in general I absolutely agree with your statement. Shanahan has proved nothing to me that Seifert didn't prove. He didn't do much after John Elway retired and Seifert did little with the Carolina Panthers after he left SF.

How long did it take Cowher to win a Super Bowl? I see that name get thrown around a lot on these boards.

GM years aside I think Mike Holmgren is the best choice to be our next coach. He took over as coach for two poor/mediocre football teams and took them to 3 Super Bowls (winning one). He has a proven track record of turning teams around. I've said this several times on this board (I know. It's my first post, but I don't post enough so I lose my account every time), but there is no reason why a team cannot be turned around in three years. It baffles me that other teams do it, but yet we wanted to give Nolan 5 years. Five years?! Are you serious? Arizona, Miami, and Atlanta are now competitive ball clubs when they were complete trash for several years. You can't tell me it can't be cone, because it can. We have fielded crap for far too long and merely accepting ourselves as a losing team is not the answer. The loss to the Titans, for me, was by far the most depressing of the year. I was at the game in Houston when the Niners played them and the first half was depressing, but Alex resurrected my hopes and got me excited about the future. I was so excited to watch the Colts, because I honestly felt we could run with them and, most importantly, beat them. We didn't quite pull it out, but it gave me confidence. We should have beaten that team yesterday. There is no excuse for how the team played.

I want someone with a proven track record of turning teams around. My first choice would be Holmgren and I think I'd choose Marty Schottenheimer (sp?) as my second. Now, I don't prefer Marty ball and he may not be the long term answer, but I'd put money that he could at least turn the ball club around and make us a playoff contender.

No. Shanahan with Terrell Davis and Elway? I think he is overrated. But why are we looking back in time?

When we took Mariucci I thought it was a brave and exciting move. It didnt work out, but it was right to try it. We need a young and visionary HC who can take the team through the next decade, not some old wrinkly living on past glories.

It is a real shame that guys like Ronnie Lott didn't go into coaching.

I think we will stick with Singletary for now. It is too early to pile into the lifeboats. But I do think he needs a strong OC.

Originally posted by CorvaNinerFan:
Gruden? Hmm...he won a SB with Dungy's team. After that, not too much. At least Shanahan seemingly always had Denver competitive. Let's compare coaching records:

Shanahan: 146 wins, 98 losses...2 SB, 7 playoffs

Gruden's 95 W, 81 L 1 SB

Holmgren's 161 W, 111 L 1 SB (GB), NFC 1(GB), 1 (Sea)

I'm not sure Holmgren wants to be a head coach any more (most likely a GM)...Shanahan definitely does. Either guy would be a huge improvement over what we have now...we need an experienced winner...no more rookie coaches. I favor Shanahan because he's got the offensive mindset we need, and he wants to coach again.

I think he said he wants to be on the sideline in 2010. That tells me he wants to coach.

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by miked1978:
No.

I believe you give a coach a few years. I don't want to be like dan Snyder and change coaches every year.

Keeping this clown mascot / cheerleader / motivational speaker will just set us back several years.

Too late. It's already cost us at least two years. You have to figure that there is no way in hell the yorks will gut him this year. The numskulls in the front office gave him 4 years which was an absolutely ridiculous mistake to make after already making an atrocious mistake in hiring him. These guys will not be quick to cut him and a) admit the horrendous mistake and b) eat the money. We're stuck and we're stuck badly. No dreaming of other coaches will save us from this nightmare. He was successful as an interim because he is a regimented rock head. He didn't have to think too much as an interim. We have miscast him so badly as a full time NFL head coach. McCloughan should fired be immediately, at the very least, for this decision.

Sing tends to make changes quicker than Nolan. But he is still irritating me.