In a game where the winner is decided by whose strategy is better, San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan sees an NFL game as a cat-and-mouse chase. He knows it’s unpredictable, but preparing for it never goes to waste. So, as he goes to bed every Friday night, he picks 12 offensive and 12 defensive plays he would like to use against his next opponent. On Saturday, he reads what his coordinators brought, and they have what he calls the “openers.” They don’t always use all of them, but it helps Shanahan with one trick he always uses in any game: probability optimization.

Interestingly, as he traveled to Australia to face Super Bowl favorites, he didn’t just think about the game, but also every factor that could bring them the most winning chances. Last season’s 12-5 record fairly shows his acumen. For nine years, he has done just that. And the 49ers have noticed, apparently, long before this season began.

Reporting for The Ringer, Tom Pelissero shared that the 49ers had “quietly signed” Shanahan to an extension this offseason. The details of the new deal have not yet been made public, but Shanahan will be in the Bay Area “for years to come.” Earlier this offseason, team owner Jed York said that Shanahan was already under contract through 2028 from an extension signed three years ago. Under Shanahan, the results have been fairly good for the 49ers. But they have a bigger target this season, and what Shanahan brings can only make it possible.

Last season, the 49ers struggled with injury woes. Namely, six of their star players, including quarterback Brock Purdy, missed an average of 11 games. Purdy himself missed eight games due to the toe injury. But Shanahan not only gave them a winning record but took them to the playoffs before a divisional loss to the eventual Super Bowl winners, the Seattle Seahawks, ended their season. And the reason was simple: how he looks at the game.

“What you see in the openers, offensively and defensively, that people are doing that to set things up and adjust as the game goes,” Shanahan told Matt Maiocco of the NBC Sports Bay Area. “So there’s never just a consistent answer. You got to always be playing that cat-and-mouse game”

For years now, Shanahan has proven that not only is his coaching tree continuing to grow, but he is not slowing down for anyone. To date, he has a specific way to plan for the games, which not only gives him a blueprint for what to base his calls on, but also makes his players much more confident in what to expect. That’s how he explains what ‘openers’ are: a set of 24 plays that his team has already practiced for days leading up to the matchup. But that doesn’t mean he is not flexible.

“I think it really helps the players,” Shanahan said last year. “You got over 100 things in, and they can really isolate on 24 plays.

“They still got to study their third downs and everything, but they kind of get an idea. And then we’ll talk about what we’re thinking in the second half, but I think it really just gives a player stuff to isolate on.”

Just take Shanahan’s mastermind tactics against the LA Rams to begin the season with a bold upset.

Jed York trusted Shanahan way before his regular-season opener excellence

Just imagine, against his former colleague, LA Rams head coach Sean McVay, Shanahan started this game of chess a week before the actual divisional clash. The 49ers flew in to Australia on September 2, allowing his team to rest, get acclimated to Melbourne’s breezy 60-degree Fahrenheit temperatures, and beat the jet lag. By the time the Rams were boarding their planes, the 49ers were out on The G, practicing for the opener. That right there was his mind working to bring his team the best winning probability against a tired, jet-lagged Rams, no matter how good they were. The game certainly showed the effects.

From the Rams’ opening drive itself, it was visible that the 49ers’ defense was not going to take it easy on the reigning league MVP, Matthew Stafford. Then, Purdy’s three touchdowns became a dagger to the heart of their four-headed monster on the defense that was already missing Aaron Donald. But York also knew how incredible Shanahan has been for his team.

Shanahan has guided the team to five winning seasons with ten or more games, has made five postseason appearances, has won three NFC West titles, two NFC championships, has featured in four conference championship games during his nine seasons with the team, and has appeared in two Super Bowl games. Only two other coaches have been as successful as Shanahan: the iconic Bill Walsh and George Seifert. With this contract, the current HC is also set to become the 49ers’ longest-serving head coach. But that’s not the only way he will go down in the team’s history books.

• Shanahan’s 92-72 record in the regular season and playoffs combined is two games shy of tying Bill Walsh for the most games coached with the 49ers at 166.
• Shanahan is also closing in on George Seifert’s 108 franchise wins record in the regular season and playoffs. Walsh had 102 and is the only other coach in team history with more wins than Shanahan.

The way the 49ers looked against the Rams in Melbourne, they look strong to contend against them and the Seahawks for the NFC West title. With that, the head coach looks good to finally win the AP NFL Coach of the Year this year. He has finished in the top five in voting four times and was runner-up in 2019 and 2022.

Last year, Shanahan finished sixth in the final rankings for the award, getting six first-place votes and gaining 140 points overall, which was considered a letdown despite his epic journey last year; and through all the years that he has been one of the biggest 49ers fans.

Shanahan has a childhood bond with the 49ers

Shanahan’s journey to here is a beautiful one. Before he got to wear the head coach cap for the San Francisco 49ers, he was a regular but passionate Niners fan.

On Christmas 1994, Kyle Shanahan was gifted a Deion Sanders jersey and fell in love with it. He wore it every single day till the 49ers won Super Bowl XXIX. His father, former offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan, warned Kyle that he’d begin to stink, per The Rogue Valley Times. The younger Shanahan simply changed undershirts to deal with that problem.

He also used to be the ball boy for the 49ers when his father used to coach. That Kyle Shanahan has grown up to chart yet another year with his favorite team as head coach.

“I just know how excited I was to have the opportunity to be the head coach of the Niners,” Shanahan said, via ESPN. “I just look at that differently than a lot of other teams. I look at the Niners, just from when I was growing up, the way people look at the Yankees. Or the teams that have been around, those marquee franchise teams. I always felt that way about the Niners and that’s why it was cool to be here, and I want everyone else to feel that way.”

With this recent contract, Shanahan becomes the only coach since Steve Mariucci in 1999 to sign multiple head coaching contracts for San Francisco.

After all, he’s kept the team stable in these past nine years. There have been hits and misses, but Shanahan has proved that he is a big factor in the team’s success. Now, all that’s left is to bring the Super Bowl back to San Francisco.