Jed York made a rare media appearance Thursday afternoon. It was a departure in the sense that an owner's appearance typically indicates something has gone massively awry. York said it himself.
But Thursday was not that. It was something of a pre-victory lap.
York didn't strut around like the 49ers had accomplished everything they set out to, nor that they'd just trounce the Chiefs next Sunday. But he reflected on the ability of the 49ers to get to this point, and revel in Brock Purdy's ascendance.
Let's start there, with Purdy.
By far the most substantial revelation from York — and it's a revelation only in his explicit admission — is that Kyle Shanahan felt Purdy was the 49ers' best quarterback back in training camp of 2022... when Trey Lance was the starter, and Jimmy Garoppolo's shoulder surgery kept him around as a high-priced backup.
"Last year, in preseason, I think Week One of training camp, which, you have a quarterback that we're paying, I think $20 million to, you have a guy that you drafted with investing three first-round picks into and he grabbed me after practice," York said. "He was like, 'Hey man, we got to talk.'"
"And that's generally not a good thing when your coach tells you you've got to talk.
"Like, 'Alright, what's up?' and he's like, 'I think our third-string quarterback's our best quarterback.'
"I'm like, 'Okay, what does that mean?'
"He's like, 'Obviously we've invested in Trey, Trey is doing a good job. We're going to do everything that we can. We're not going to change that. And we're not going to change the chart, the depth chart, but like, I think Brock will end up being our quarterback at some point."
That's a pretty monumental admission. York gave credit to Shanahan for not forcing Purdy into the starting job and credited him for his unfailing honesty.
"He's always honest, even if it's not - like, one thing that owners don't love to hear when they've invested money and/or draft picks or both into people that the last pick in the draft is the guy that we think is the best," York said. "That's generally not great news. But he's honest, and he let it play out the right way."
York did, however, say that had some "sarcastic comments" for Shanahan after the loss to the Chiefs, when Purdy played in relief. He recalled a certain Purdy play when, "he threw one ball into the stands." But the early directness from Shanahan gave York and the organization ease when Purdy took over.
From broadcaster Greg Papa talking up Purdy in preseason performances and the myriad crumbs left by Shanahan and John Lynch, it's been apparent the 49ers felt like they got a steal from the jump. But no one has ever said they felt Purdy was the team's best quarterback that early.
That admission was borne from a place of York's appreciation for Shanahan.
That's actually putting it far too lightly.
One of the other major revelations from Thursday came from Shanahan himself, and the fact that York was investing in him for an unprecedented term.
Shanahan said that when he joined, his plan for the 49ers was a four-year timeline.
"You never want to have those records [in 2017-18], but we also were realistic before we started," Shanahan said. "We were trying to build it to have a legit shot the fourth year. It was kind of our goal, and it happened the third year."
That is a mind-boggling timeline. If it is accurate, and not just a rose-tinted, feel-good accounting of how this project began, it means York invested in Shanahan with a four-year slate to get things going in the right direction.
Owners don't give some coaches to the end of the season, and here was York, buying into Shanahan and Lynch for four years? From the jump? After "mutually agreeing" to split ways with Jim Harbaugh, then dispatching Jim Tomsula and Chip Kelly in consecutive years?
York wasn't asked specifically about that four-year timeline in the barrage of questions from media, but he did go back to his first interview from Shanahan. He said while other people have blown smoke at him, Shanahan was blunt.
"He's like, 'This is one of the worst rosters I've ever seen,'" York recalled.
There were some other notes from York's availability, of course. He got choked up recounting the NFC Championship game, and how he calmed his son, "on the verge of tears" in the first half, by throwing the ball with him in his suite.
York also recounted the Christian McCaffrey trade , and how Shanahan was the only one amongst those two and Lynch who thought the 49ers might be giving up too much for a running back. The deciding factor?
"Collectively, it was, 'Do you want him to go to LA?" York said.
No. They did not. York made a Vegas-adjacent analogy about knowing when to push your chips in, and felt, obviously, that the 49ers made the right call doing that on McCaffrey.
More than anything, York's appearance was a reflection on how his investment in Shanahan paid off, and how, after seeming reactionary and blundering the end of the Harbaugh era, he got it right.
But what if the 49ers lose to the Chiefs again, and the narrative around Shanahan remains that he can't get over the hump? York made sure to address that, too.
"It would be hard for me to say that I enjoy working with anybody more than I've enjoyed working with Kyle," York said. "I think Kyle's a phenomenal coach. I think he's done a phenomenal job with our club.
"I mean, I don't really care what the outside perception is. It's it is very, very difficult to make the playoffs. It's very difficult to get to a championship game. It's very difficult to win a championship game. It's more difficult to get to this game. And I think Kyle's results more than speak for themselves."
If there's anything to take away from all this, it's clearly that in your next job interview, you should be excruciatingly honest and tell the person you're interviewing with that the staff is terrible and it will take four years to get things right.
At least, that's what worked for Shanahan, who has proved himself right.
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