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he 2026 NFL<\/a> season is fast approaching. After the NFL Draft concludes later this month, the focus will shift towards minicamps and OTAs, where teams will get their first chance to see their 2026 rosters in action. For the San Francisco 49ers<\/a>, the 2026 campaign is a big one\u2013 one that is about proving that they still have what it takes to be Super Bowl contenders. Dealing with a slew of injuries last season that prevented them from reaching their full potential, the 49ers want to stay healthy this season and turn the tables on their fortunes.<\/p>\n Led by 10th year head coach, Kyle Shanahan, the 49ers are ready to reach new heights and be the team they know they can be. Despite facing major adversity in 2025, Shanahan put together arguably his best season as a head coach, leading the 49ers to a 12-5 record and a return to the playoffs after a one year absence. Shanahan is a top coach in the NFL for reasons like that, and heading into the \u201926 season, he is already getting a ton of respect from around the league\u2013 especially when it comes to where he sits in the NFL coach power rankings.<\/p>\n Shanahan\u2019s Favorable Ranking<\/p>\n In an NBC Sports article, writer Patrick Daugherty did power rankings for all of the NFL head coaches ahead of the 2026 season, and ranked Shanahan at No. 3. While consistently a top coach in the NFL, Shanahan\u2019s ranking is a shock considering how he is ahead of Super Bowl champion Mike MacDonald, but according to Daugherty, it is what Shanahan was able to do with so little in 2025 that catapulted him up the list.<\/p>\n \u201cShanahan\u2019s teams always win at least 12 games except for all the times they don\u2019t. Shanny has long since established himself as the king of variance. So is life when personnel takes a back seat to scheme and coaching. But has Shanahan finally discovered something he\u2019s been accused of lacking: Resilience? 2025 had all the hallmarks of a lost 49ers campaign,\u201d Daugherty wrote<\/a>. \u201cA biblical wave of injuries, including at quarterback. Acrimonious disputes with the No. 1 and 2 wideouts. Questionable to nonexistent returns from many key recent draft picks.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis would usually be the cue for Shanny to accept his 6-11 fate and start planning for next year\u2019s Super Bowl loss. And yet, there his team was, playing for the NFC\u2019s No. 1 seed in Week 18. Not even the dreary home loss to the Seahawks<\/a> that ensued could obscure the fact this was a different kind of Shanahan squad, one that actually punched back after getting knocked down,\u201d Daugherty added<\/a>. \u201cThat was confirmed the following week when they upset the Eagles<\/a> in the Wild Card Round. By that point, another rough loss to the Seahawks in the Divisional Round didn\u2019t even matter. This is a Shanahan team that still has all of its old strengths, but with some new ones thrown in. If \u201cShanny Ball\u201d can actually denote toughness moving forward, Shanahan will soon shed his moniker as the best active coach not to lift a Lombardi.\u201d<\/p>\n Can the 49ers Bounce Back?<\/p>\n The 49ers clearly are not happy about how last season went, given how they wasted no time in adding top tier talent. Headlined by the addition of future Hall of Fame wide receiver, Mike Evans<\/a>, the 49ers also added players such as linebacker Dre Greenlaw<\/a> and defensive lineman Osa Odighizuwa<\/a>, filling major needs. And while the 49ers still have work to do, and need to come to an agreement with left tackle Trent Williams<\/a>, the team is in a much better position now than they were at this point last year.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tDylan Grausz<\/a> A lifelong sports fan, Dylan channels his passion for sports into being a journalist, where his primary goal is to provide readers with content that they love to read. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Dylan’s love for the Warriors, 49ers and Giants runs deep, having the ultimate dream of being a beat reporter for one of those teams. More about Dylan Grausz<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on 49ers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty T he 2026 NFL season is fast approaching. After the NFL Draft concludes later this month, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,7,6,1161,252,2624,2623],"class_list":{"0":"post-860217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","13":"tag-sanfrancisco","14":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116367216258479717","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}