The San Francisco 49ers faced a tough task this offseason, having to find a new coach and general manager following two particularly ugly seasons of football. The team ended up landing Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch, and while we do not know the dollar figures yet, there are reports about some sacrifices Jed York made in hiring the two men.
Mike Lombardi made an appearance on The Ringer podcast with Bill Simmons, and they discussed the 49ers situation. According to Lombardi, Shanahan’s contract has no offset language in it. Tim Kawakami tweeted that he has heard the same thing about Lynch’s contract.
Offset language in a contract provides that if a coach or player is fired or released and lands a job with another NFL team, the payment on that next contract can offset what the previous team owes him. There are varying specifics to it, but it essentially takes “double-dipping” off the table.
According to both Lombardi and Kawakami, it is a rarity for coaches and GMs to not have offset language. The fact that the 49ers conceded to not include it is a further indicator that the team is willing to give this a serious go. I don’t think we needed to hear about offset language to think that, but given how the past three years have gone, it is no surprise Shanahan and Lynch could leverage this kind of thing.