Less than a year removed from the San Francisco 49ers tumultuous contract negotiations with wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, the end result may have helped shake things up in Santa Clara. At least, that’s what The Athletic’s NFL insider Michael Silver wrote earlier this week in an excellent piece detailing the circumstances that kept Aiyuk in the Bay Area and explained how things are unlikely to play out in a similar way going forward. For better or worse, the Niners down season has led owner Jed York to be less willing to defer to head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch.
“In the wake of a 6-11 season, a more significant change has taken place,” Silver writes. “Going ‘all in’ is out; coach-driven emotion is no longer a guiding principle. The 49ers are attempting to be cold, calculated and analytical when it comes to roster decisions, an organizational reset that coincides with the negotiation of a massive contract extension for quarterback Brock Purdy.”
It’s been well litigated that the 49ers agreed to trade Aiyuk to the Steelers prior to this past season, but ultimately inked a nine-figure extension with him instead. Of course, in his first season under that deal, Aiyuk tore his ACL after just seven games, which had also been far less productive than recent seasons. Silver’s reporting added that an early training camp tiff between Shanahan and Aiyuk also fueled some buyer’s remorse in the Niners’ building.
An organization that attempts to reel in Shanahan’s seemingly emotional approach to player evaluation is far from a massive concern. Throughout his tenure with the 49ers, he’s shown a tendency to fall in love with certain players above the rest of the league, leading to some regrettable overinvestments. However, the question is not whether the Niners could use another voice to quell Shanahan’s urges, it’s whether the fanbase should trust Jed York and Paraag Marathe to do so?
After all, Marathe was fired as the 49ers president of football operations back in 2015 and York was most known for allowing Trent Baalke to derail Jim Harbaugh’s tenure and spawn an era of instability before bringing in Shanahan. It’s important to note that Silver draws some clear distinction between this era and previous. Shanahan is not on the hot seat, “not even lukewarm,” according to Silver. That should leave more space for a true back-and-fourth between the head coach and top brass.
Still, the track record of highly involved owners is far from great. As the pivotal negotiations with Brock Purdy get underway, a lot is riding on the 49ers ability to manage the difficult decisions ahead. Kyle Shanahan may have been able to single-handedly make that choice before, but now, it appears York will be more willing to disagree with his head coach.