The San Francisco 49ers finished 2018 with a 4-12 record. You wouldn't have thought their staff would have been a target this offseason by other teams. At least, head coach Kyle Shanahan didn't believe that would be the case.
Shanahan lost defensive backs coach Jeff Hafley (to Ohio State), assistant offensive line coach Adam Stenavich (Green Bay Packers), and offensive assistant T.C. McCartney (Denver Broncos).
The most devasting offseason loss was quarterback coach Rich Scangarello, who became the Broncos' offensive coordinator. The 49ers might have lost wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator Mike LaFleur or run-game coordinator Mike McDaniel had they not denied other teams permission to interview the two assistants.
That's a lot of turnover and outside interest for a four-win team.
"You usually don't expect your staff to get raided after you have a 4-12 year," Shanahan said Friday morning on KNBR. "It happens after you go to a Super Bowl and a guy from your staff gets a head coach job somewhere, and he tries to take everyone with him like I tried to do in Atlanta a couple of years ago.
"That's usually when it does happen, so some of that caught me off (guard). When you're in the middle of some drinks down in [Cabo San Lucas], hanging out, then you realize, oh my gosh, you might lose some coaches. You've got to talk to some guys, and some guys got some good opportunities, like Rich Scangarello getting to go to Denver."
Shanahan said the 49ers will officially have a number of new coaches in the building next week. The 49ers already hired former Miami Dolphins tight ends coach Shane Day, who has experience working with quarterbacks during his time with the Chicago Bears, to replace Scangarello as the team's quarterbacks coach.
"I'm excited to get Shane in here," Shanahan said. "I have a number of people I'm very close with who have worked with Shane. I've known him over the years. This will be my first time working with him. I got him down to Mobile (the 49ers were in Alabama last week for the Senior Bowl), put him through a long interview, got to see where he's at.
"He's been around a lot of good coaches. He started out most of his career with Mike Martz. He's been with (Adam) Gase the last couple of years down in Miami.
"He has a lot of knowledge of the quarterback game. We're going to sit here over the next couple of months, and I'm going to teach him our system, and what we like to do, and the way we like to do it. He's a very smart guy, and he's capable of soaking in a lot of information. And he's going to have a lot of his own ideas to bring to the table.
"We're really going to put him on a crash course learning here in the next couple of months, and then when the players get in, and we're allowed to talk to them, he'll be able to take over right where Rich left off."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Shanahan below.
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