49ers: Kyle Shanahan has a lot of reasons to be cheerful

49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan has plenty of reasons to be cheerful.

Kyle Shanahan can look ahead to the 2020 season safe in the knowledge his long-term future with the San Francisco 49ers is secure and his top draft choice on the offensive side of the ball is healthy.

The 49ers announced on Monday that they had signed Shanahan to a multi-year contract extension. Adam Schefter reported Shanahan signed a new six-year deal that replaces the final three years of his previous contract, tying him to San Francisco through the 2025 season.

Shanahan’s new contract gives him much more time to right the wrong of their Super Bowl LIV collapse in February. If he reaches the end of his deal, Shanahan will become the second-longest tenured 49ers head coach behind the legendary Bill Walsh.

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Crucial to the immediate hopes Shanahan and the 49ers have of rebounding from their Super Bowl loss will be wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, whom San Francisco traded up to select with the 25th overall pick in this year’s draft.

The decision to move up for Aiyuk puts added pressure on the former Arizona State star as he looks to fill the void left by the departure of Emmanuel Sanders.

His task appears to have been made tougher by world events that have decimated the NFL’s offseason workout schedule, however, the early signs suggest Aiyuk is on the right path to overcome that obstacle and excel as a rookie.

Aiyuk is fully recovered from the core muscle surgery he underwent prior to the draft, according to Matt Barrows of The Athletic, and has been participating in throwing sessions with quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and a handful of other 49er receivers at San Jose State.

Garoppolo, per Barrows, has been impressed by Aiyuk.

"“You can tell when you’re calling a play and you look into a guy’s eye and know if he’s taking it in or if it’s like, ‘What the hell is this guy saying?’. And he was engaged, he was locked in. And he was a fun guy to be around, too.”"

There is still a long way to go for Aiyuk, who will have a shortened amount of time to put the knowledge of the 49er playbook he has learned from zoom sessions into practice.

But Shanahan must be encouraged by his willingness to build a rapport with his quarterback right off the bat.

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Between that, the physical progress Aiyuk has made and Shanahan signing on for another six seasons at the helm, the 49ers head coach has a lot of reasons to be cheerful.