49ers' Klay Kubiak Will Be Promoted to OC; Kyle Shanahan Will Continue to Call Plays
January 8, 2025
The San Francisco 49ers are promoting Klay Kubiak from offensive passing game specialist to offensive coordinator, head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters on Wednesday.
Shanahan said he would continue to call plays in 2025, per ESPN's Nick Wagoner.
The 49ers haven't hired an offensive coordinator since Mike McDaniel held the position in 2021, per ESPN's Field Yates.
The news comes after Shanahan told reporters he allowed Kubiak to call plays against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 18. The Niners went on to record 436 total yards of offense in the loss.
Kubiak also called plays in two preseason games ahead of the 2024 campaign.
Shanahan said after giving Kubiak the chance to call preseason plays that he thought it was "good for anyone to get practice for their future."
"I remember when I was a receiver coach and a quarterback coach, I'm always calling the game in my head," Shanahan said on KNBR's The Shanahan Show in August (h/t NBC Sports' Ali Thanawalla.) "No one's really letting you do it, but you're always preparing for that because that's your goal.
"I would have loved the opportunity to get it before I actually had to do it... So I thought it would just be cool opportunity for Klay to do it, something that could help him for the future and things like that."
The Week 18 loss marked the first time Shanahan had not called plays in a regular-season game since he began the 2008 season as the Houston Texans' offensive coordinator, per NBC Sports' Matt Maiocco.
The 49ers are looking for changes after plunging down the NFC standings with a 1-7 season-ending stretch and missing the playoffs less than a year after a trip to the Super Bowl.
Niners CEO Jed York told Tim Kawakami of the San Francisco Standard that Shanahan and general manager John Lynch were "not going anywhere."
That security hasn't applied to all members of the current staff. The 49ers dismissed special teams coordinator Brian Schneider after the unit struggled throughout 2024, per ESPN's Nick Wagoner.
Gary Kubiak and Mike Shanahan won three Super Bowls together while coaching the 49ers and the Denver Broncos between 1995 and 1999. Their sons will now look to help the 49ers climb back into postseason contention in 2025.