It was exactly one year ago Tuesday that the 49ers officially announced Shanahan was taking over. That came after a lengthy waiting game in which the Niners watched as Shanahan, then in his role as offensive coordinator, and the Atlanta Falcons kept winning postseason games. Because league rules stipulate that coaches on teams still in the playoffs can’t be hired until their seasons are complete, the entire NFL world went roughly two weeks knowing that Shanahan eventually would take over the 49ers.

When that finally happened, Shanahan had no choice but to hit the ground running with Lynch in an effort to rebuild a team that had dropped to 2-14 in 2016. What followed was a rush to fill out a coaching staff, begin scouting college prospects and potential free agents, sign a huge free-agent class, make some difficult (and quick) decisions on their own roster, host college prospects on visits, go through the draft, begin the offseason conditioning program and go through organized team activities.

There was little time to come up for air, and soon enough, the 49ers were back for training camp. By then, the process of sorting through a roster that had just gone through massive turnover became the focus. Along the way, the Niners lost projected starters such as linebacker Malcolm Smith and guard Joshua Garnett to season-ending injuries.

When the season began, the Niners promptly dropped nine in a row, becoming the first team to lose five consecutive games by three points or fewer. Despite the series of crushing defeats, Shanahan stuck to the plan, and his players’ belief in his message never wavered.

“No one was where we wanted to be and the season was kind of not looking very fun, but he was able to stay the course,” 49ers left tackle Joe Staley said. “I think his first head-coaching year was very, very impressive because of what he had to go through. It was no success early for him. He was able to build a locker room that was 2-14 the previous year and going through an 0-9 start and still had us believing.”

To be sure, the losing wasn’t the only test Shanahan would face in his first season as a head coach. In addition to injuries, he also had to navigate an escalating situation with linebacker and fan favorite NaVorro Bowman. Bowman, who was returning from an Achilles injury, wasn’t the player he once was in the Niners’ eyes, and they began reducing his workload. As you’d expect for a proud player such as Bowman, he wasn’t thrilled with that idea and went so far as to request a trade from the only team he’d ever known.

After shopping Bowman, Shanahan and the Niners eventually cut him loose to choose his own team rather than forcing a trade to a destination Bowman didn’t prefer.

From the reduction in playing time to the day of Bowman’s release, Shanahan maintained his straightforward approach, repeatedly emphasizing the need to see the big picture for the organization.

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“When you have a guy who had the type of career that Bo had had here, the type of guy he was, it would have been much easier to maybe ignore it,” Shanahan said. “You never know how people are going to react. That press conference was real tough for us because it’s not something that we’re wanting to do. We just felt it was the best thing to do. I’ve learned over my career that sometimes things you think are the best thing, perception-wise and stuff, sometimes it comes back and bites you a little bit because not everyone understands.

“That was something we had to do, that we believed would help us in the long run. We thought it was better for Bo, too. To sit there and stay strong with it, I thought it went over well. I thought it tested our organization pretty good. Didn’t know how everyone would react to it. I think everyone felt the same. It was something that no one was happy about, but I think everyone understood and it made me believe and feel a lot more comfortable where I was. I felt everyone in here had each other’s back and understood tough decisions you’ve got to make. Hopefully they end up being the right ones.”

About two weeks later, Shanahan and the Niners made a much easier decision: trading for quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. Garoppolo’s arrival solved the Niners’ biggest issue and set them up to win those final five games. It also now has the Niners looking at much loftier expectations in Year 2 under Shanahan.

In the earliest Super Bowl LIII odds released by the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook, only seven teams have a better shot at winning next year’s big game than the 49ers, who are starting with 20-1 odds. All that for a team that a year ago at this time was considered a 300-1 long shot to win the Super Bowl.

Suffice to say, the hype around Garoppolo and the Niners is only going to continue to build as we head toward next season. And so begins a whole new challenge for Shanahan.

He said it: “We are world champions, men. Just look around. This is what you guys have done. This is what you have accomplished. We said before, an individual can make a difference but a team makes a miracle. You did it. You did it against a fine football team. When you’re asked, you’re complimentary, but at the same time … we are going to party.” — Pederson

Key offseason question

In the days leading up to Saturday’s selection meeting, some wondered if Urlacher would be chosen in the same class as Lewis, as two high-profile players at the same position in largely the same era. The athleticism and production of the former Chicago Bears middle linebacker tipped the scales.

Urlacher was an eight-time Pro Bowl selection and the league’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2005.

Owens, a finalist for the past three years, had been a hot-button candidate with his own public criticisms of the board of selectors after he had not been chosen for the Hall in 2016 or ’17.

A third-round draft selection of the San Francisco 49ers in 1996, Owens ranks eighth all time in receptions (1,078), second in receiving yards (15,935) and third in receiving touchdowns (153). He played for the 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys, Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals in a career that spanned 15 years.

“Terrell Owens gave our organization eight great seasons of service and some terrific memories that will live on in 49ers lore,” CEO Jed York said in a statement congratulating the six-time Pro Bowler. “He is one of the most accomplished wide receivers in the history of the NFL, and very deserving of this selection to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.”

Owens, who is the only player to score a touchdown versus each of the current 32 teams, acknowledged his selection Saturday in an Instagram post featuring a Hall of Fame hat.

Dawkins played 13 of his 16 NFL season for the Eagles, who will face the New England Patriots in Sunday’s Super Bowl. A nine-time Pro Bowl selection, he was a rare player to have finished a career with at least 35 interceptions and 20 sacks.

“This is tremendous news, and I could not be more proud of Brian. Being inducted into the Hall of Fame is an honor he truly earned,” Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said. “He epitomized everything we love about the game of football. His intensity, his passion, his love of the game and his leadership were always dialed in at the highest possible level.

“He connected in every possible way with the city of Philadelphia and our legion of Eagles fans across the country.”

But no former player waited longer for enshrinement than Kramer, who played his last season with the Green Bay Packers in 1968. He was the only guard selected to the NFL’s 50th anniversary team and was a lead blocker for one of the league’s iconic plays in the Packers’ sweep. Kramer also cleared the way for Hall of Famer Bart Starr to score the winning touchdown in the Ice Bowl, the Packers’ 21-17 win over the Cowboys in the 1967 NFL Championship Game.

“In the old days when the quarterbacks called their own plays, since most of them were right-handed, they called most of the plays to the right. So the defense would put their best men on that half of the field. Therefore, Jerry Kramer, as a right guard, played against the best defensive tackle every week. He still made All-Pro five times,” said former Packers linebacker and 2013 Hall of Fame inductee Dave Robinson.

Brazile was a seven-time Pro Bowl selection as well as a four-time first-team All-Pro. The player known as “Dr. Doom” was named to the NFL’s all-decade team of the 1970s.

Beathard was a personnel executive for five teams in his career, including Super Bowl winners in the Miami Dolphins and Washington Redskins. He was part of 10 division winners and four Super Bowl winners overall, including the 1972 Dolphins team that finished undefeated.

Because it takes an 80 percent yes vote for a finalist to earn enshrinement, the votes sometimes cancel each other out if players are clustered at one position group. With two wide receivers in Owens and Moss as well as two linebackers in Lewis and Urlacher selected for enshrinement, it was a difficult day for five former offensive linemen who were finalists.

Joe Jacoby didn’t make the cut from 15 finalists to 10, while Tony Boselli, Alan Faneca, Steve Hutchinson and Kevin Mawae did not make the cut from 10 remaining modern-era finalists to five.

Jacoby and former cornerback Everson Walls were both in their final year of eligibility as modern-era candidates. They now move to the seniors category and can only be considered for enshrinement if the seniors committee selects them as a nominee, a difficult proposition with the current backlog. Walls had not made the cut from 10 to five.

Former Patriots cornerback Ty Law was also eliminated in the cut down from 10 to five. Wide receiver Isaac Bruce, running back Edgerrin James and safety John Lynch were eliminated in the cut down from 15 to 10.

“I’m glad I didn’t have to vote for this class,” Urlacher said. “It’s a great class.”

As for next year, tight end Tony Gonzalez, cornerback Champ Bailey and safety Ed Reed will be in their first year of eligibility.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

By the way, the table above doesn’t even include Kamara’s highest EPA play of the season: a 106-yard kick return in Week 17 against the Bucs.

It’s not that Gurley didn’t have plays like this, it’s just that, in total, those Kamara plays added so much more. One area that Gurley was weak in, though: third-and-1 runs. He converted only six of 14 attempts on such runs (43 percent) when the league average conversion rate on those rushes was almost 73 percent. Those kinds of misses are costly. (Kamara only attempted two such runs and converted one, for what it’s worth).

One note to keep in mind: Three passes intended for Gurley were intercepted (compared to zero for Kamara), which is likely just a stroke of bad luck for the Rams running back in this sort of study. Nonetheless, even if we only looked at completions — rather than targets — for those two running backs Kamara still leads, and it still isn’t remotely close.

You may have noticed a pattern among the five running backs listed above (Thompson probably gave it away): they are all pass-catching backs. And that’s not a coincidence, but rather a function of the fact that, in general, passing plays are more productive than running plays. On average, running plays have a negative EPA, so that the Rams added 0.00 expected points on Gurley runs this year isn’t really a knock: it’s above average.

On one hand, this shows the value of multi-dimensional running backs. On the other, we are talking about the most valuable running back. And it’s not their fault that running, on average a sub-optimal part of an offense, is part of the position’s job description. So if there was another running back who added more value on the ground than Kamara, that could muddy the waters here. The good news: there isn’t. Kamara led all backs in team EPA on running plays only as well. So he swept the running and passing game categories in 2017, which should just about do it.

Almost.

The last type of measurement we’ll consider here is win probability added. If we’re measuring the value of a running back’s plays by the degree to which they swung a game, then WPA is where we ought to look. Personally, I don’t think either EPA or WPA ought to be a catch-all for MVP. EPA doesn’t include enough context (like garbage time) but WPA relies on situations far too heavily. The truth is in between.

Regardless, WPA is Gurley’s best case for this pretend award. Gurley (cumulative win probability added of 1.93) trails Kamara (1.95) here too, but only just. But maybe, if there’s wiggle room somewhere, Gurley could pull ahead.

And of course there’s wiggle room. Because the dark cloud over this entire analysis is that we’re not measuring each player’s contribution. We’re measuring the team’s productivity on plays when the running back had an attempted touch. Even when Kamara does run or catch the ball, there are 10 other players on his team working for that same EPA result.

If the EPA race were closer, we’d have to consider all of that gray area, and this would be a much more difficult (imaginary) honor to vote for. But it’s not all that close. Even with the razor thin margin in the WPA race, the rookie so handily blew away his competition in terms of sheer production that it’s safe to assume that after dividing credit the result would be the same: Kamara was 2017’s most valuable running back.

Brian Burke and Hank Gargiulo contributed to this story.

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