Shanahan is eye-of-the-beholder material.
You can see him through the prism of this past January, tugging the Niners through a crucible of edgy wins over the Rams in Week 18, Dallas on the road on Super Wild Card Weekend and Green Bay in frigid Lambeau in the Divisional Round. Or you can ask why his Falcons attack fell apart on the back end of a 28-3 lead in Super Bowl LI — or why his Niners offense (and defense) did the same down the stretch in Super Bowl LIV. We can laud Shanahan for effectively playing around a hot-and-cold Jimmy Garoppolo, or ask why Trey Lance faded into the wallpaper as a first-round rookie passer.
I don’t need to look beyond what Shanahan accomplished with Deebo Samuel. Turning his powerful pass-catcher into the team’s most dangerous rusher helped morph the Niners into a burning torch. Jimmy G threw passes, but Deebo, in many ways, was the team’s true quarterback for drives at a time. If Lance can evolve and grow into a spicy starter, Deebo — the target for a massive extension — becomes only more of a raging headache.
