In the midst of the 2023 season, the San Francisco 49ers took some attention away from their 3-0 start and rewarded head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch with multi-year extensions, tying them to the franchise for the foreseeable future.
With the extension, Shanahan is signed with the 49ers through at least the 2027 season, putting him in line to potentially break a major franchise record.
Currently, legendary coach Bill Walsh holds the franchise record for longest-tenured coach at 10 years, but Shanahan could break that, should he remain with the 49ers throughout the remainder of his newly-signed extension.
Does that hold any sentiment for the current head coach?
"Yeah, hypothetically it'd be very cool," Shanahan said. "Contracts do not mean anything. They mean a lot, but that doesn't mean anything in that aspect but to be even asked the question with someone like that is really cool."
"I feel very fortunate for it and like I said, we did this at the beginning of the year so it was very celebratory with my family and everything. But once the season started you kind of realize you feel the same in every other aspect. Nothing really changes."
"We did [the extension] before the Pittsburgh game, so I'd already celebrated with my family and stuff like that, which is huge. I feel very grateful. Just being a coach anywhere for a long time, I know what that means and extremely grateful for that to have that opportunity and mainly for my family to be somewhere for so long, which is cool."
"But, doing it before this season even started, I think meant a lot to me. Just shows you the people that we're with, that we believe in each other, despite what could happen whether we were 0-3 or 3-0, we'd still be in the same situation. I really like where we live and really like the people we work with, and they're committed to giving us a chance to go for it every single year and that's all I could ever ask for."
Regardless, it's a remarkable accomplishment for the head coach who was hired by the 49ers in 2017, and has since compiled a 61-49 overall record including three playoff appearances and a Super Bowl opportunity.