Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio often has to deal with accusations from fans of being a San Francisco 49ers or Kyle Shanahan "hater." However, the writer didn't sound like a hater when asked a simple question during a radio interview on Wednesday morning.
If Florio were starting a team from scratch, how many head coaches would he take before Kyle Shanahan?
"[Dolphins head coach] Mike McDaniel," Florio responded on 95.7 The Game's "The Morning Roast" show. "That's it."
One coach. Why does Florio regard McDaniel and Shanahan so highly?
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"Well, these guys are the masters at coming up with effective game plans," Florio explained. "It all comes down to making sure your guys are healthy enough to execute the game plans, but they know how to orchestrate not just a game but a whole season."
And that's not to say that picking McDaniel over Shanahan is a given for the sometimes controversial writer.
"If I take anybody ahead of Shanahan, it would be Mike McDaniel," Florio shared. "And I'm not even sure that I would take McDaniel ahead of Shanahan. It might be a coin flip at the end of the day."
How does Florio respond to being labeled a Shanahan critic or "hater"?
"When I respect people, I hold them to a higher standard," Florio explained. "So that may be why criticism gets confused as hate. You know, in this day and age, you can't say anything critical of someone without being labeled as a 'hater.' You can't have an honest opinion that isn't overly flowery about someone without, 'Oh, you're just a hater. Oh, you're just jealous.'
"No, I have an opinion, and my opinion is there are areas where Kyle Shanahan needs to improve; most specifically, and this may be solved for now, but the thing that's kept him from winning at least two Super Bowls is the way he's handled the quarterback position. That's a fair criticism. That doesn't mean I hate him. That just means I have eyes and ears."
Shanahan may have found his guy in Brock Purdy, last year's final pick in the draft. So maybe that problem is solved. Things didn't work out with oft-injured quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo or Trey Lance, the quarterback for whom the 49ers surrendered a haul of draft capital to acquire. Garoppolo is now with the Las Vegas Raiders, while San Francisco traded Lance to the Dallas Cowboys.
You can listen to the entire conversation with Florio below.