49ers lose assistant HC Anthony Lynn to Commanders day after Kyle Shanahan said he expected whole staff back

Head coach Anthony Lynn of the Los Angeles Chargers looks on before the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at SoFi Stadium on October 25, 2020 in Inglewood, California.

There’s a cliche that NFL doesn’t stand for National Football League but rather “Not For Long,” and that proved to be true for the San Francisco 49ers in the days following their 25-22 overtime defeat in Super Bowl LVIII against the Kansas City Chiefs.

On Tuesday, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said he expected the entirety of his coaching staff back for 2024.  A day later, that will no longer be the case. San Francisco’s assistant head coach and running backs coach Anthony Lynn, who has held that role with the 49ers since the 2022 season, is reportedly leaving to join new Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn’s staff, according to an ESPN report on Wednesday. Lynn is reportedly close with Quinn and new Commanders general manager Adam Peters.

His role will be as the team’s run-game coordinator, a step up from his prior job where most of his responsibilities were as a position coach. Quinn hired Kliff Kingsbury, the former Arizona Cardinals head coach, to be his offensive coordinator, but Lynn will be just below him on the offensive staff flow chart it appears. Lynn last called plays as the Detroit Lions offensive coordinator in 2021. Lynn has 24 seasons of NFL coaching experience, including four as the Los Angeles Chargers head coach from 2017-2020 where he went 33-31.

Lynn, who played six seasons as NFL running back with the Denver Broncos and San Francisco 49ers, won two Super Bowl titles as a part of John Elway’s 1990’s Denver squads. San Francisco running back Christian McCaffrey earned his second First-Team All-Pro selection of his career and his first NFL Offensive Player of the Year award in 2023 under Lynn’s tutelage.