Kyle Shanahan’s starting quarterback, Brock Purdy, was struck by a turf toe injury that has limited him to two starts.
The stud pass-rusher? Nick Bosa’s season was wrecked in Week 3 by a torn ACL.
Fred Warner, the heart and soul of the San Francisco 49ers defense, went down in Week 6 with a broken and dislocated ankle.
Dynamic wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk still hasn’t made it back yet from the devasting knee injury suffered last season. Meanwhile, Ricky Pearsall, rising star of a receiver, could miss his fifth consecutive game on Sunday as he recovers from a knee injury.
Last weekend, first-round rookie Mykel Williams, who replaced Bosa in the starting lineup at left defensive end, suffered torn knee ligaments that finished him for the season.
Sure, an NFL season is always a war of attrition. Every team in the league has its share of injury setbacks that test their depth, resilience and ability to adapt.
Yet no team this season has been stung quite like the 49ers, with a heavy presence on the All-IR Team underscoring the challenge.
And through it all, San Francisco has already won six games – matching its total from last year’s injury-ravaged campaign – to keep afloat in the NFC playoff race.
For Shanahan, whose resume includes three NFC West titles and two Super Bowl appearances in eight seasons as 49ers coach, this has the look of his best coaching job yet.
At least to this point.
That’s why Shanahan, rolling with revived quarterback Mac Jones, gets my nod as the NFL’s midseason coach of the year. It’s the resourcefulness amid the extreme degree of difficulty. You can certainly make a strong argument for Mike Vrabel in his first year back in Foxborough, leading the New England Patriots (7-2) to the pole position in the AFC East. Ditto for Shane Steichen, who has the Indianapolis Colts (7-2) humming, bolstered by another revived quarterback, Daniel Jones. And at least a half-dozen others may be in the mix for the honor by season’s end, pending performance down the stretch.
Shanahan, though, is the one you might think would be halfway through a lost season, given the setbacks with so many key players. Talk about overachieving.
“I wouldn’t say ‘overachieved’ because we believed we could do this,” Shanahan said during a press conference this week, ramping up for another big test against the division-rival Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. “I think always when you have injuries it’s much more of a challenge, definitely.
“But, I think some of the key positions we have had key injuries, we’ve had some good guys step up. I mean, I’m thinking all these positions, it’s just a total backup. I think we’ve had some guys come in and play like starters. I also know other teams in the League have some of these issues, too. So, we’re 6-3, and we’ve got a chance here. We’re in the hunt, but we’ll see how we finish the rest of this half out.”
Will the injuries catch up with the 49ers? That’s a fair question. Yet Shanahan is hardly wired to wave a white flag.
His offense, which runs through multi-tasking running back Christian McCaffrey (NFL-high 1,222 yards from scrimmage), didn’t fold when Jones stepped in. The front is still anchored by arguably the best lineman in the game, Trent Williams. The boost that came with star tight end George Kittle’s return from missing five games with a hamstring injury, is poised to get more fuel for the passing game with Pearsall and Purdy apparently progressing. And a major bonus looms if Aiyuk comes back at some point … with his explosive playmaking skill intact.
Shanahan winning with a revived Mac Jones
In the meantime, Jones, who fizzled as a Patriots first-round pick and was merely an emergency option during his Jacksonville stopover, has illustrated why keen coaching is critical to the development of young quarterbacks. He’s put up a pair of 300-yard games and demonstrated much grit in leading the 49ers to five victories. When San Francisco stunned the Rams in Week 5, he was nearly knocked out of the game with a knee injury.
On Sunday, he added to his street cred by completing his first 14 passes against the Giants. And by the way, he has publicly doused any chatter about a QB controversy.
During his postgame remarks after the victory at New York, Jones underscored why he’s been a good fit within a culture undeniably established by Shanahan, with “the guys just letting me be myself, which is kind of different from what I’ve had in the past.”
Strikingly, during the buildup to the NFL draft in 2021, many projected the former Alabama quarterback as a target to land with the 49ers. San Francisco, though, traded up to draft since-busted Trey Lance with the third pick overall, leaving Jones to be drafted by the Patriots with the 15th pick. Now Jones is connected after all with Shanahan, whose free agent signing of the quarterback has paid off remarkably.
“When you lose your starting quarterback, it’s always tough on a team,” Shanahan said after the win against the Giants. “The way Mac stepped in there, going back to New Orleans (in Week 2) and how he was that first game, how he’s been in practice, how he was in the offseason, Mac’s been great.”
A much taller order exists for the 49ers defense to absorb the absences of Warner, Bosa and now Williams. But another of Shanahan’s key offseason moves gives them a better chance. He brought back Robert Saleh to coordinate the defense – the fourth coordinator in as many years for the unit – and restore the standard.
It’s worth noting that Warner’s sub at mike linebacker, second-year pro Tatum Bethune, has tallied an NFL-high 50 tackles since stepping up in Week 6.
Yes, it takes players to win in the NFL. Yet culture and coaching talent matters immensely, too, to get the best out of the available players, which is why Shanahan’s 49ers are still firmly in the playoff mix.
My other midseason plaudits:
NFL Midseason MVP: Jalen Hurts
Amid much fuss about A.J. Brown’s targets, Saquon Barkley’s touches and the morality of the Tush Push, if the playoffs began today the Eagles (6-2) would be the No. 1 seed behind their steady, old soul of a quarterback. Hurts seems oblivious to the noise, evidenced by his 15-1 TD-to-INT ratio and 114.4 passer rating on pace to be the best in his career. No, the defending Super Bowl champs don’t need him to pass for 5,000 yards, which is why a 25th-ranked passing game must be put into context. It’s about efficiency. Philadelphia has the fewest turnovers in the NFL (3) and best red-zone TD rate (85%), while Hurts has completed 70.2% of his passes. And he can run when needed, plow when pushed, while apparently remaining unfazed by potential distractions.
Defensive Stud: Myles Garrett
Remember when the NFL’s best defensive player, frustrated by the Cleveland Browns’ lack of winning, asked for a trade last offseason? Well, he changed his tune with the massive contract averaging $40 million per year. And he’s given the Browns so much bang for their buck, already notching his eighth-consecutive double-digit sack season (10) for the NFL’s second-ranked defense. The winning, though, is still hard to come by as the Browns (2-6) still wallow at the bottom of the A-North.
Offensive Megastar: Jonathan Taylor.
At this rate, Taylor, the NFL’s leading rusher (895 yards, 5.7 per carry), doesn’t merely threaten to propel the Colts to the playoffs. With 14 touchdowns (12 rushing, 2 receiving), he might also make a run at the NFL single-season record that LaDainian Tomlinson set in 2006.
Don’t call it a comeback: Matthew Stafford
There was a lot of drama all offseason, and into the summer, about the availability of Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford as he dealt with a back injury. Well, he’s fine. Stafford, 37, has been on fire, firmly in the MVP conversation with his NFL-high 21 touchdown passes.
A Star, Emerging: Drake Maye
The second-year Patriots quarterback leads the NFL with a 116.9 passer rating, his team is in first place and what a sterling streak: 8 consecutive games with at least 200 passing yards and a 100-or-better passer rating. They haven’t seen that in New England since Tom Brady’s era. Mike Vrabel knows better than to compare, but this is trending, as they say.
Golden Oldie: Aaron Rodgers
Look who’s in first place again? Rodgers, 41, might not have the MVP flair that he possessed in his heyday, but his (ultimate) free agent move to the Steelers could make him relevant in January again. His arm, like his football IQ, is still sharp.
How Ya Like Me Now? Sam Darnold
Darnold is the quarterback that Jets owner Woody Johnson might wish he had about now. But that was three NFL stops ago for Darnold, who is everything the Seahawks could have hoped for with their free agency signing. It certainly helps to have a target such as star receiver Jaxson Smith-Njigba, but somebody must throw the rock.
New Kid on Block: Emeka Egbuka
Another Ohio State receiver making a distinct mark in the NFL. It figures. Egbuka, drafted 19th overall, has been a offensive rookie of the year-type necessity for Baker Mayfield and the Bucs, who have lost Mike Evans for the season and been without Chris Godwin since Week 5. Egbuka leads all rookies with 562 receiving yards on 34 catches, with 5 TDs. And they’ve loved his maturity since he arrived.
Double Trouble: Micah Parsons and Rashan Gary
When the Packers obtained Parsons from Dallas in the blockbuster trade, they envisioned him as a missing piece to a Super Bowl pursuit. Parsons’ impact is evident. Not only does he rank second in the league with 44 quarterback pressures, his presence has helped Gary take advantage of matchups and collect 7 ½ sacks.
Back to the Future: Chicago Bears
Finally, the Bears have an offense that doesn’t resemble the scheme the franchise started with when the NFL was formed in 1920. A modern-day offense was the promise that came with new coach Ben Johnson, lo and behold, the creative whiz brought along some of the trick plays that made him special in Detroit. Suddenly, Caleb Williams looks like a potential star and the Bears (5-3) have a winning record. If I’m dreaming this, wake me up now.
Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on X: @JarrettBell