The San Francisco 49ers have high expectations from here on out. The Kyle Shanahan era didn’t get off to a great start, but after acquiring Jimmy Garoppolo and ending the season on a 5-0 run, there’s considerable hype for the direction the team is heading. Some of that is from the media, some from the fans and some from 49ers players themselves.
But Shanahan is reserved, or at the very least, he doesn’t want anybody on the team to get ahead of themselves. Speaking on PFT Live, Shanahan was asked about the first thing he wanted to do when people assemble for the first on-field workouts soon.
“Make sure we humble everyone right away,” Shanahan said. “Everyone felt so good leaving because we won our last five games of the year, which was nice, but we also were a 6-10 team. We got a long way to go and look forward to starting that when we get back.”
This also reminds me of Shanahan’s quip at the NFL Combine about the proper way to get people excited about a 6-10 season being a 5-0 streak to end said season. It’s clear that Shanahan is very aware of the discussion around the 49ers and he’s, at the very least, wary of it.
That shouldn’t be seen as a lack of confidence by him (or by me), but a young coach managing expectations for what is a mostly-young team. The 49ers being excited isn’t a bad thing by any stretch — but overconfidence could be an issue too, or at least Shanahan feels that way.