Kyle Shanahan still seems sensitive about 49ers’ ‘weird situations’

Kyle Shanahan’s results should speak for themselves.

With near-constant instability at the most important position, his teams have reached three NFC title games over the past four years. 

But here’s another way to think about it: That instability was caused in part by his own erratic decision-making. Shanahan the personnel boss has done Shanahan the coach no favors at quarterback, even as he’s built a perpetually stacked roster elsewhere. 

Regardless, something was eating Shanahan when he was asked Wednesday about Jimmy Garoppolo’s recent comments. Garoppolo — who famously went from Patriots backup to 49ers franchise savior to Trey Lance seat-warmer to starter to gone in a tumultuous half-decade in the Bay Area — gently chirped Shanahan in a recent Sports Illustrated interview.

“Uh, you know, weird situation,” Garoppolo said. “Been a lot of weird situations over there in San Francisco, just to leave it at that.”

It’s understandable that Garoppolo would be snippy about Shanahan. “No, I don’t see any scenario of that,” Shanahan curtly said about a possible Garoppolo return after last season.

In other words, Shanahan started it, at least publicly. On Wednesday, he acted like Garoppolo did.

“Jimmy — the comments are the comments. I’m really not concerned about his comments,” Shanahan said. He then gave a somewhat exasperated recap of the past six years.

“When we got here, we waited 10 weeks and made a trade for a quarterback, played five games, and then we made him the highest-paid quarterback of all time at the time. Then he played two of the next five years and did really good in those two years. His injuries for three of those five years were legit. It was rough on him, rough on us. Then we made a move to go to a younger quarterback. And that’s what we did. We thought he’d be ready in two years, and he wasn’t. And now we have a different younger quarterback. So that’s the situation.” 

Concise! Shanahan was then pressed directly: Do you agree with Garoppolo’s characterization that it’s been weird? “I think any time you trade up to the third pick in the draft and it doesn’t work out, it’s a weird situation. But that is the situation,” Shanahan said. He then nit-picked about “weird.” “That is what happened. I don’t think it’s that weird. It’s unusual that doesn’t work out, but I wouldn’t think that’s weird. I think it’s unusual. What do you think?”

The reporter, NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco, responded that Garoppolo was working out on a side field last summer and then was starting again after saying goodbye, calling it “unique.” Shanahan got shorter with him, asking, “Do you remember why that happened?”

The answer, obviously, was Lance broke his ankle. Shanahan was pressed by reporters about that one too, getting increasingly testy at the suggestion that his play-calling had endangered Lance.

These are the annual vibes around the 49ers, who keep winning despite being the “weirdest goddamn team in football.” Maybe the Brock Purdy administration will bring some normalcy and stability. Just don’t hold your breath.