Kurtenbach: 49ers overreactions — Shanahan on the hot seat? Tank for Trevor?

The 49ers' loss to the Miami Dolphins Sunday was all sorts of bad, but some folks are going overboard in the aftermath.

The Deets is a weekday morning dose of commentary — delivered at 7 a.m. — from sports columnist Dieter Kurtenbach that wraps up everything important in the world of sports and looks forward to another crazy day ahead.

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It was bad. All sorts of bad.

The 49ers’ 43-17 home loss is the kind of blowout defeat that will be a pivot point — for better or worse — for a season and perhaps a regime.

But, I gotta say, some of the takes that flew after this game were downright unhinged. There’s no reason to delay. Let’s get into it:

Overreaction: It’s time to ‘Tank for Trevor’

The 49ers are a bad football team right now. Things might get worse before they get better, as their next seven games are against six opponents that, at the time of publishing, have combined to win 80 percent of their games so far (25-6).

Much like when Jimmy Garoppolo tore his ACL in 2018, this team might be cooked and heading towards a high draft pick.

But deliberately losing? This team is beyond that.

Or at least they should be.

And to pull off such a stunt, they would have to be extremely deliberate, because as bad as things might seem for San Francisco right now — and I’m not here to tell you things are going well — they are still unquestionably better than a lot of bad teams in the league. Two teams, that, coincidentally, the 49ers have beaten this season, stand out — the Jets and Giants. There’s more where that came from too.

Tanking for Clemson quarterback and presumed No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft Trevor Lawrence is out of the question. Even ‘Failing for Fields’ in an effort to land a pick high enough to select Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields feels out of reach. After all, the Niners already have two wins. It’s hard to see stasis there, even after Sunday’s loss.

Don’t get me wrong, if Garoppolo doesn’t improve his play in weeks to come, the 49ers are going to be selecting high in the NFL Draft and they will be looking for a new quarterback this offseason. That’s not a revelation or overreaction — this was always a make-or-break campaign for the Niners’ quarterback, who is effectively playing on team options the next three years.

But a top-five pick looks out of the question for a team like the 49ers. Even with all of their injuries, it seems impossible for them to stoop that low.

Overreaction: Kyle Shanahan is on the hot seat

Twitter was an interesting read yesterday, as folks with issues they needed to project let it all out for anyone and everyone to see. Some even pulled some likes out of it.

A take that made the rounds Sunday night and made me look level-headed in comparison (and that’s saying something) was that Kyle Shanahan is not just on the hot seat, but that the seat had already immolated.

It’s laughable.

Shanahan has not coached well this year. No sir. Half of my columns this season have been lambasting his decisions. And Sunday was his worst performance of a bad campaign — his management of Garoppolo’s and Ahkello Witherspoon’s injuries defied basic logic. I also don’t think he’s calling particularly good games as an offensive coordinator. Oh, and the Niners’ no-contact, brains-over-brawn preparation going into the season was questioned well before it proved to be inadequate. The 49ers are nowhere near physical and they don’t seem to be appreciably smarter or more clever than their opponents.

Add in critical injuries and bad quarterback play and it’s all a big pile right now.

But for some reason, it’s necessary to remind folks that this team played in the Super Bowl in February. They were one quarter away from being the champions. And he did that with quarterback play that was anything but transcendent.

I guess that was all luck.

If Shanahan isn’t good enough to coach the 49ers — if he doesn’t deserve the opportunity to ride out this season, no matter how bad it gets — I simply cannot help you. Your standards are far too high and perhaps you should talk to a professional.

I’ve also seen criticism of team CEO Jed York — an easy target, we can all admit — for extending the contracts of Shanahan and John Lynch this past offseason.

It’s a downright weird angle.

First off, if York wanted to fire Shanahan and Lynch tomorrow, he could do so with fiscal impunity. The 49ers print money — or at least they did before the world ended — and buy-outs of Shanahan’s and Lynch’s contracts would barely make a dent in the team’s books. Don’t go counting York’s money. It’s gross.

It’s also important to remember that it takes two to tango on contract negotiations. York extended both, yes, but Shanahan and Lynch had a lot to do with that process, no?

At the end of last season, Shanahan appeared to be one of the truly elite coaches in the NFL. He still had plenty of time left on his initial six-year contract, no doubt, but he was entering the back end of that deal. A new contract was hardly out of the question.

York — after years of searching and embarrassment, much of it personal — had found the right guy. The right guy wanted a new deal, lest he start looking for other jobs (roughly 28 other NFL teams would have immediately made him their head coach if he started shopping around). Since money is not and won’t be an issue, York extended him and then his hand-picked general manager. That’s the game, and it’s ridiculous that it needs to be explained a few short months later.

Overreaction: The 49ers defense is terrible

I’m not going to tell you that the 49ers defense is an elite unit, but Sunday’s embarrassment should be a one-off.

Really.

Let me double-down for clarification: I didn’t think the 49ers’ defense, on the whole, played poorly on Sunday. But Brian Allen did, and his 24 snaps were enough to torpedo the entire unit’s effort.

I’m not alleging that the Niners would have pitched a shutout had Witherspoon played for Allen — the Dolphins were going to get theirs — but Allen being overtly targeted at the start of the game, paired with Garoppolo’s two duck interceptions, put the Niners in a 30-7 halftime hole that was never going to be reversed (even though Miami wanted to give San Francisco chances in the second half).

Let’s be clear: this is not going to be a unit that will win you games, but remove Allen — who made it clear on the first series that he wasn’t ready for real NFL action — and they shouldn’t be a defense that will lose games.

San Francisco’s cornerback situation should improve next week. Richard Sherman might return. He’s pretty good. Witherspoon should be available. Emmanuel Moseley should clear the concussion protocol — he would be a good option in the slot. Jason Verrett has been really good this season, too. That position could be one of strength for the remainder of this season.

Given the lack of a serious pass rush, that’s important. But this defense boasts really good linebackers, a secondary that could be solid by this week, and a line that does do well against the run.

This defense is fine — it was just undone by its weakest link Sunday. That’s a coaching failure. Full stop. If something like that happens again, Robert Saleh might be able to get a head start on looking for that head coaching job he probably disqualified himself from on Sunday.

Overreaction: The offensive line is unsalvageable

It’s not. It’s still really talented. But let me offer this explanation for why it has been so poor to start the season. It’s three-pronged:

1. There was a collective presumption (that I was a part of) that left tackle Trent Williams, because he might be a future Hall of Famer and used to play for Kyle Shanahan, would pick up San Francisco’s offense with ease. That was wishful thinking.

Williams hadn’t played for Shanahan since 2013 and, while Shanahan is an ideologue, some stuff has changed since then, I’d imagine. There have now been countless pressures and sacks coming from Williams’ side of the line because of poor communication between him and right guard, Laken Tomlinson.

I know Tomlinson knows the plays.

2. Ben Garland has been the 49ers’ center for so many consecutive games that it’s easy to forget that he’s the backup to Weston Richburg.

Garland is an exceptionally nice fella, and he’s whip-smart, but there’s a reason he’s option No. 2: He’s not good in pass protection, and, it seems, he’s not tremendous as getting his line on the same page.

That’s the coordinator’s job, yes. It’s also the quarterback’s job. But it has to be part of the center’s responsibilities. All three levels are failing for the Niners.

Shanahan asks a lot from his centers. He needs them to be the captain of the offensive line. Shanahan puts so much value in centers — it’s probably an outsourcing play — that he’ll gladly skimp on spending on a guard to pay a top center (in his eyes) more. You’ll still hear Shanahan bring up Falcons center Alex Mack sometimes.

Garland is clearly not getting the job done up the middle. The book has been out on him as a blocker for while and he doesn’t seem to be fulfilling his more subtle duties, either.

I don’t know if Richburg is going to be able to play again. The dude’s all sorts of banged up. So while it would be bold, I wouldn’t be shocked in the least bit if Shanahan made a play for Mack in the coming days — Atlanta just fired everyone and the center is a California kid and a pending free agent.

3. Mike McGlinchey needs to put on weight so he can anchor against power rushers. Of course, it’s easy for me to say that someone should put on weight, but having the right side of a line not be able to pass protect (Dan Brunskill looks lost inside at right guard) is less than ideal.

All of this is rectifiable. Seriously. But it needs to be rectified now. Not tomorrow. Now. Aaron Donald looms on Sunday and he is probably drooling while watching Niners film.

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