Kurtenbach: The clock is ticking on Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch, and they know it
San Francisco 49ers: After another Super Bowl loss, the Niners will likely run back the same team in 2024. But how many more cracks will they have at winning No. 6?
SANTA CLARA — The clock is ticking on 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch.
No, their seats aren’t warm — they just signed long contract extensions before the season.
But after yet another stinging Super Bowl loss — the team’s second to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in four years — both men know that they have just two years to get over the hump and win the franchise’s sixth Lombardi Trophy.
Shanahan and Lynch are halfway through the lifespan of the greatest gift any NFL organization can have, shy of having Mahomes: Brock Purdy is an excellent quarterback — the best Shanahan has coached in San Francisco — and he’s on a rookie contract.
In a league where the salary cap never seems quite high enough and starting quarterbacks like Mahomes make over $50 million a season, Purdy is the luxury of all luxuries. He’s set to make $1 million next season and $1.2 million the year after that. Such minuscule numbers make building a team easy.
The Niners must take advantage of this window. Once it closes, building a Super Bowl contender becomes exponentially more difficult.
The team’s braintrust thought it had done enough this season, and was just a few plays from being proven correct.
But this isn’t horseshoes or hand grenades.
That game is now ancient history. The page now must turn to the 2024 season.
It’s a season that started the second Mecole Hardman scored the game-winning touchdown. There’s no time for the weary — or heartbroken — to rest.
The NFL draft combine is at the end of this month.
Free agency looms next month.
The NFL Draft is in April, and offseason team activities are in May.
And some key decisions must be made before it all starts in earnest again.
