Kyle Shanahan keeps landing in that rarefied air near the top of NFL coaching rankings, and Bleacher Report’s latest list was no different.
The 49ers head coach checked in at No. 3, behind only Sean McVay and Andy Reid. That placement says plenty about how Shanahan is viewed around the league: he’s treated like a championship coach even though the ring is still missing. Year after year, he’s the highest-ranked coach without a Super Bowl title, and he usually ends up ahead of someone who has one.
This time, the names sitting just below him were Mike MacDonald, Sean Payton and Nick Sirianni, who rounded out the top six. The gap between Shanahan and that next group comes down to one thing that keeps hanging over these rankings: Super Bowl hardware.
MacDonald is the youngest name in the mix and only entering his third year as a head coach, so his rise isn’t really in question. Even so, he went 2-1 against Shanahan last season, and Shanahan has admitted that he struggles with MacDonald’s defense.
Payton is a little different. He did win a Super Bowl, just not with the team he’s coaching now, and that title came more than a decade ago. Still, he’s got the accomplishment Shanahan is chasing.
Sirianni is another interesting case. Shanahan beat him the last time they played, but Sirianni often gets dragged into the background while his coordinators and players soak up the credit.
He also seems to live with the heat that comes with coaching in Philadelphia. Even so, the question of whether he’d swap places with Shanahan is a fair one, and Shanahan would have to ask himself the same thing if the Super Bowl were on the table.
Behind them, Mike Vrabel and Jim Harbaugh came in at No. 7 and No. 8. They’re the closest to Shanahan in terms of résumé, since both have reached the Super Bowl without winning it.
That’s what makes Shanahan such a fascinating figure in these annual rankings. He remains in the league’s top coaching tier, but he’s also the lone man in that group without a Super Bowl victory. How long that balance holds is the question now.
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