Jed York: 49ers have the right leadership in place to overcome adversity

CEO Jed York has a lot of faith in head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch's ability to build and maintain a successful roster. The San Francisco 49ers have seen more success than most teams in recent years, reaching the NFC Championship twice and a Super Bowl over the past three seasons.

That isn't enough for many fans with aspirations of a sixth Super Bowl. They don't want their team to be better than most of the others. They want it to be better than everyone else. But the truth is that Shanahan and Lynch have built a pretty successful product since taking over the reins in 2017. It's certainly been a lot more successful than the years that followed the Jim Harbaugh era when fans had to endure seasons with Jim Tomsula and Chip Kelly running the show.

Despite coming up short in recent years, York has learned to appreciate the winning his team has enjoyed. The 49ers were one or two plays away from winning the Super Bowl during the 2019 season. They were one or two plays away from returning to the big game this past season. The 49ers didn't achieve their ultimate goal, but York strongly believes the right people are in place to ensure improvement.

"What I've learned in being in this for a while is you have to appreciate every victory," York said Tuesday from the NFL owners meetings in Florida. "And knowing that we could have very easily not made the playoffs, could very easily not come back in the last game of the season, could have very easily won if a few plays went differently in the NFC Championship Game—and sometimes, that's just how it works—it's not going to change our approach to trying to get back there.

"And again, because we have the right people around, because we have the right culture, we're willing to be able to fight and figure out how to get better from those near misses to give us a chance to get back into it. And I think it's a healthier group. It's a more productive group of people that we're around."

That doesn't mean coming close isn't frustrating. York knows that adversity is part of the NFL. However, how that adversity is handled says a lot about a team.

"It pisses me off to lose, but there's some things that are just out of your control, and you have to be able to deal with that," York said. "And if you're going to deal with adversity, you better have a really, really good group of people with you, and I can't imagine two better people to be with than Kyle and John to get through tough times."