Why emotional connections and continuity favor the 49ers in an uncertain NFL season
The 49ers had four head coaches from 2014 to 2017 while they toiled at the bottom of the NFL. That lack of continuity showed on the field as players struggled to develop because they had to learn new systems each offseason while things were constantly turning over.
But that’s different now that Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch are entering their fourth seasons at coach and general manager, respectively, while many key players on the roster have been around for multiple seasons operating out of the same playbooks.
And given the uniqueness of this pandemic-laden offseason, the 49ers should benefit from cohesion in a way they haven’t for a long time, giving them a leg up on other teams as they look to defend last season’s NFC championship.
Five clubs — Dallas, Washington, Carolina, Cleveland and the New York Giants — are facing the uncertainty of 2020 with new coaches. Three — Matt Rhule of the Panthers, Joe Judge of the Giants and Kevin Stefanski of the Browns — are head coaches for the first time. And they didn’t get to work with their teams on the field until this month because the pandemic wiped out offseason programs throughout the league.
The 49ers, meanwhile, played 19 games last season, are returning 18 of 22 starters and kept all their coordinators in place. Their meetings since the team rejoined at the Santa Clara facility this month have been about building on a foundation already in place.
“We kind of picked up where we left off,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said Tuesday. “It’s nice to be in an offense that this is our fourth year doing it so we don’t have to spend so much time on the Day 1, Day 2, that kind of stuff. We’re kind of past that and we’re to a point that we can really just start building on everything that we’ve already done and get into some of the more advanced and minute details of things.”
Emotionally, the group has also experienced a lot. There was the nine-game losing streak to begin Shanahan’s 49ers tenure, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo’s season-ending knee injury in 2018 and last season’s rise to a conference championship only to fall in gut-wrenching fashion to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV.
Away from the field, CEO Jed York’s brother, Tony, died in December 2018 at 35. Reserve quarterback C.J. Beathard’s brother, Clayton, was stabbed to death hours before the comeback victory against the Los Angeles Rams just before last Christmas. He was 22.
The 49ers wore stickers on their helmets to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Tony York’s death during December’s last-second victory over the Saints in New Orleans, arguably the biggest game of the regular season, and an emotional Shanahan gave a game ball to the York family afterward. The team played with heavy hearts against the Rams weeks later because Beathard is a revered member of the locker room and had to get on a plane to mourn his brother the morning of the game. It took two converted third-and-16s from Garoppolo on the final drive to set up the game-winning field goal.
Fast forward to this uncertain season amid the coronavirus pandemic, the bond between the team is being tested again. Running back Raheem Mostert said he might be forced to miss the birth of his second son in September in order to keep his family safe from contracting the virus. Mike McGlinchey said this week three offensive linemen have newborn children but are still sacrificing family time for the sake of the team.
Suffice to say, the continuity goes beyond having familiar faces and systems in place. The 49ers have been hardened by difficult experiences. The connections throughout the organization are factoring into the heightened sense of responsibility not to contract the virus away from the facility by doing something irresponsible or unseemly, like going to a crowded area where people aren’t wearing masks or socially distancing.
Said McGlinchey: “These guys that are sacrificing for our team to have that opportunity to compete for a Super Bowl, and build on what we did last year, that are making the ultimate sacrifice to be away from loved ones and people that need them, you owe it to them to be responsible as an individual and you owe it to the rest of the league that’s in the same situation. And you just hope that guys are going to feel that, they’re going to feel that responsibility and morality to do that, and make the correct decisions so that we can all have a great season and stay safe.”
The Super Bowl loss has also been a motivating factor. Lynch, in the final team meeting of last season, brought up the fact that only three teams in history have ever won the Super Bowl the year after losing it — which came after the 49ers became just the third team to reach the Super Bowl after winning four or fewer games the previous season.
Mostert said the walk-throughs have been intense and felt almost like practices. New left tackle Trent Williams said they almost felt like games. Padded practices, when they begin Monday, should have a similar fervor.
“That hunger, that angst, is discipline in itself,” cornerback Richard Sherman said. “There’s just an accountability and there’s a brotherhood aspect of this team and it’s something that is never talked about enough. There’s a chemistry and there’s a want to. … And when you’ve got a lot of guys like that, it makes you a hard team to beat because everybody is willing to do whatever it takes to win.”
