How They Were Built: 49ers made adjustments

Truthfully, this 49ers team came together by accident.

The 49ers had a plan, and it’s part of the reason they’re in the Super Bowl just three years after John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan joined the organization, but not the whole reason. Not even close.

The plan was meticulous. Lynch and Shanahan replaced almost all the players they inherited from the previous regime - only seven remain. The new general manager and head coach prioritized fast players who are smart, coachable and easy to get along with. That’s the personality of the team. Lynch and Shanahan created that.

But their plan failed in certain ways, because life has its own plans that get in the way of mere human plans. So Lynch and Shanahan reacted on the fly, and reacted well. And that’s why they’re in the Super Bowl.

Here are the top five moves Lynch and Shanahan fell into - brilliantly.

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Trading for Dee Ford

The plan was to trade for wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.

The 49ers tried to trade for him before the 2018 trade deadline, and again during the 2019 offseason. But the Giants instead traded Beckham to the Browns for a first-round pick, a third-round pick and safety Jabrill Peppers.

“The 49ers were stunned,” according to an ESPN report. “It’s strongly believed the 49ers would have been willing to offer more (than Cleveland) for a wide receiver of Beckham’s stature, according to a league source.”

Meaning they would have traded multiple first-round picks for him.

Good thing they didn’t. Less than an hour after Beckham went to the Browns, the 49ers traded a second-round pick in 2020 for Dee Ford. Call Ford Plan B.

The 49ers had to feel somewhat disappointed when Plan A fell through. Did Ford feel disappointed to come to the 49ers, a four-win team in 2018? “Records don’t bother me,” Ford said. “What I saw was the potential. I knew the potential of this team. I knew how young the D-line was. And I knew that they had a really good chance of getting Nick Bosa. And I knew the impact I could make.”

Ford helped make the 49ers defense elite, while Beckham helped the Browns offense rank just 22nd out of 32 teams.

Plan B was the way to go.

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Trading for Emmanuel Sanders

After missing out on Beckham, the plan was to start Marquise Goodwin and Dante Pettis at wide receiver.

In 2018, the 49ers had given Goodwin a three-year, ?$19.25 million contract extension through 2021, and had traded up in the second round of the 2018 draft to take Pettis. Big investments. The 49ers also had spent their second- and third-round picks in 2019 on wide receivers Deebo Samuel and Jalen Hurd, respectively, plus they had Trent Taylor, Kendrick Bourne and Richie James Jr. on the roster already. The 49ers thought wide receiver was one of their deepest positions.

But by November of this season, both Goodwin and Pettis had lost their starting jobs, Taylor and Hurd were injured and the 49ers’ best receiver was Samuel, a rookie who hadn’t yet come into his own.

The 49ers didn’t have good enough receivers to win the Super Bowl. So they traded their third-round pick in 2020 to the Broncos for Sanders, a 32-year-old receiver coming off a torn Achilles who will be a free agent in 2020. This after the 49ers had already traded their second-round pick in 2020 for Dee Ford.

Mortgaging the future for Ford and Sanders wasn’t the plan, but both moves were necessary. Sanders instantly upgraded the offense and became the mentor the wide receivers needed in their meeting room.

“I had a strong feeling I would end up here,” Sanders said.

Turns out the 49ers didn’t mortgage the future. They improved the house.

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Keeping Raheem Mostert

The plan was for anyone but Mostert to start at running back.

Mostert is one of the seven players the 49ers kept from the previous regime. But they kept him to play special teams, not running back.

The 49ers wanted Joe Williams to be their starting running back - they drafted him in the fourth round of 2017, one round before they drafted George Kittle, their All-Pro tight end. But Williams was a bust. Never played a down in the regular season. Washed out of the league.

Jerick McKinnon was the backup plan. They gave him a four-year, $30 million contract in 2018. But he tore his ACL before the season started and still has never played a snap for the 49ers.

Tevin Coleman was the backup to the backup plan. The 49ers gave him a two-year, $8.5 million contract in 2019, and he played well enough to start 11 games for the 49ers. But he averaged only four yards per carry.

Mostert averaged 5.6 yards per carry as Coleman’s backup. Mostert was the backup to the backup to the backup plan. He didn’t become the full-time running back until Coleman separated his shoulder during the NFC championship game against the Packers fewer than two weeks ago. Mostert replaced him and rushed 29 times for 220 yards and four touchdowns. Now he’s one of the most important players on the 49ers.

He was right under their noses.

“People counted me out,” Mostert said. “I was out there doing special teams work and trying to stay on this team. That’s the most magical I’ve ever felt, just being able to prove to somebody that I’m worth something.”

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Hiring Saleh as defensive coordinator

The plan was to make Saleh the linebackers coach.

Shanahan wanted to hire Gus Bradley or Vic Fangio as the defensive coordinator. But the Bears wouldn’t let Fangio out of his contract, and Bradley signed with the Chargers instead of the 49ers.

“I was ready to go to the Chargers with Coach Bradley,” Saleh explained. “Kyle said to me, ‘Rob, I’d love for you to commit to me. I can’t promise you anything, but if you can commit to me as linebackers coach, I promise I will give you a legitimate interview as a coordinator.’ I wasn’t expecting anything out of it, but the interview came, and we all see how it went.”

Saleh did so well in the interview, Shanahan hired him immediately as defensive coordinator.

In just three years, Saleh has become one of the ?best defensive coordinators in the NFL and a head-?coaching candidate. The Browns interviewed him for their head-coaching vacancy earlier this month.

And, to think, Saleh would have gladly accepted a job as the 49ers’ linebackers coach.

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Trading for Jimmy Garoppolo

The idea was to sign Kirk Cousins in 2018. That’s one reason the 49ers didn’t draft Patrick Mahomes in 2017.

“It’s pretty well documented the relationship I have with Kirk from being with him in Washington,” Shanahan explained. “I felt very confident that he wasn’t going to stay there. That made me a lot more picky with what we were looking at.”

Pickiness led the 49ers to an 0-9 start in 2017. At the time, their plan didn’t seem so hot. So when the Patriots called the 49ers at the trade deadline and offered them Garoppolo for just a second-round pick, the 49ers stopped being picky. They walked through the door life had opened for them and accepted the trade just 30 minutes after they received the offer.

Shanahan admitted he went into a brief, mini-?depression, because he’d had his heart set on Cousins. Then Garoppolo won his first five starts with the 49ers in 2017, and the team gave him a five-year, $137.5 million contract to be their franchise quarterback. But Garoppolo tore his ACL just three games into 2018, and they finished the season with a 4-12 record.

Should the 49ers have stuck with the Cousins plan?

No, and the reasons are ironic. Garoppolo’s injury led to a dismal win-loss record, and that record led to a high draft pick, which the 49ers used on Nick Bosa, the 2019 Rookie of the Year. Ironically, the 49ers are better off because Garoppolo tore his ACL, and so is he. He made a full recovery, and returned to the most talented team in the NFC.

Plans, shmans.