“We gotta check what’s in their cup,” Richard Sherman tears into idea of Kyle Shanahan being on the hot seat

Asked whether Kyle Shanahan would be on the hot seat if the 49ers missed the playoffs this season, Richard Sherman dismissed the idea outright. Then he widened the lens to something bigger, i.e., Shanahan’s standing inside the building, across the league, and within a franchise still trying to convert sustained contention into another Lombardi Trophy.

Sherman, the former All-Pro cornerback who starred for the Seahawks and then spent three seasons with the 49ers from 2018 through 2020, now speaks from the dual perspective of ex-player and media voice through his podcast. He knows the NFC West’s coaching ecosystem, knows the standards in San Francisco, and knows how Shanahan is perceived by players and front offices alike.

His comments arrived at a moment when the 49ers are not viewing 2026 as another push built on continuity, a 12-win rebound season in 2025, and an offseason reset around Brock Purdy and a reshaped roster.

The hot-seat conversation has surfaced before as well. During a difficult 2024 stretch, Deebo Samuel pushed back on the same idea, pointing to Shanahan’s pattern of deep postseason runs and essentially asking why one rough patch should erase years of winning.

1. 20 NFL Teams Would Fire Their Coach for Kyle Shanahan, Says Richard Sherman

Sherman began with disbelief. He said, “I don’t know who asks this question, but we gotta check what’s in their cup. If Kyle Shanahan missed the playoffs this year, would he be on the hot seat? Absolutely not, absolutely not. He wouldn’t even be close. He’d be on an iceberg. He’d still be on an absolute iceberg.” He continued, “If he somehow was on the hot seat, then there’d be twenty seats in the NFL getting hotter as he got hotter, because if he ever got fired, so would they. Because there are at least twenty teams in the National Football League that would fire their coach that day to have a chance to interview Kyle Shanahan to be their head coach.”

2. The STATS That PROVE Kyle Shanahan Isn’t Going Anywhere

To understand why Sherman reacted so strongly, the starting point is Shanahan’s tenure itself. The 49ers announced multiyear extensions for Shanahan and general manager John Lynch in September 2023, reinforcing a partnership that had already rebuilt the franchise from the wreckage of the mid-2010s. At the time of that announcement, the team credited the duo with multiple division titles, three NFC title-game appearances, a Super Bowl trip, and one of the conference’s best win totals since 2019. The extension was not ceremonial. It was ownership formalizing that this regime had restored relevance and deserved runway. After a rough 10-22 opening stretch in the first two years of the rebuild, the 49ers went 72-45 over the next seven seasons under Shanahan and Lynch, reaching the playoffs five times and posting a 9-5 postseason record in that span. Those numbers do not end every argument, because San Francisco still has not broken through for a sixth Super Bowl title, but they do establish why the franchise views Shanahan as a pillar rather than a problem. Shanahan’s own comments from Phoenix fit that same picture. “I love coaching,” he said. “Even though I’ve looked like I’ve aged 10 years, because I physically have aged 10 years. But I still feel good. My family still loves it … and I love being with the Niners.” That quote matters because it answers a quieter question beneath the hot-seat talk: not whether the 49ers want Shanahan, but whether Shanahan still wants the grind. His answer was emphatic.

3. Why the 49ers Still BELIEVE in Kyle Shanahan Despite Playoff Pain

Part of the emotion in this debate comes from how the 49ers have lived under Shanahan. They were rarely irrelevant, often dangerous, and repeatedly close enough to fuel both admiration and frustration. The franchise’s 2025 season is a good example. San Francisco returned to the playoffs after missing them in 2024, won 12 games, beat the Eagles 23-19 in the wild-card round, and then saw its postseason end with a 41-6 divisional-round loss to Seattle. After a rough 10-22 opening stretch in the first two years of the rebuild, the 49ers went 72-45 over the next seven seasons under Shanahan and Lynch, reaching the playoffs five times and posting a 9-5 postseason record in that span. Those numbers do not end every argument, because San Francisco still has not broken through for a sixth Super Bowl title, but they do establish why the franchise views Shanahan as a pillar rather than a problem. Shanahan’s own comments from Phoenix fit that same picture. “I love coaching,” he [said](https://www.nfl.com/news/niners-head-coach-kyle-shanahan-addresses-possibility-of-leaving-coaching-for-tv-booth?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank" rel=“noopener). “Even though I’ve looked like I’ve aged 10 years, because I physically have aged 10 years. But I still feel good. My family still loves it … and I love being with the Niners.” That quote matters because it answers a quieter question beneath the hot-seat talk: not whether the 49ers want Shanahan, but whether Shanahan still wants the grind. His answer was emphatic. That combination explains why Sherman did not treat the original question as a real pressure point. Around the league, coaches can survive on politics without production for a while. Shanahan’s case is nearly the inverse. He has had painful finishes, but the production is strong enough that San Francisco still sees him as central to its next serious run.

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