With the recent departure of Jim Harbaugh from San Francisco, the Niners are looking for his replacement.

Rex Ryan could be a good possibility for San Francisco, but he’s defensive minded and the 49ers already have a good defensive coordinator with Vic Fagino.  In the past the Niners had defensive-minded coaches with Mike Nolan and Mike Singletary and the defense did well, but not the offense so much.  In 95 games under thos defensive-minded coaches the Niners are 36-59.

The good option in my option is with an offensive-minded coach like Harbaugh.  Under Harbaugh, the Niners were 44-19-1 with Fagino dealing with the defensive side of the ball.

One proven candidate is Mike Shanahan.

Shanahan is from the Bill Walsh coaching tree from his three seasons under then-San Francisco head coach Geroge Seifert as a offensive coordinator.  Between 1992 and 1994 the Niners were 37 and 11, won three NFC West Championships and one Super Bowl.  Shanahan’s offense scored 1,409 points over those seasons, or about 470 points a season.

Shanahan has dealt with running quarterbacks like Kaepernick with Robert Griffin III.  Kaepernick is in a slightly better boat compare to RGIII because Harbaugh had worked with Kaepernick on becoming a better pocket passer.

Something Shanahan struggled with RGIII with during his last season or two with Washington, but Shanahan can continue that as he had experience with working on Steve Young to become a better pocket passer and worked with John Elway.

Shanahan has also had experience with a great running game.  He dealt with Ricky Watters in the early 90s with the Niners and Terrell Davis in Denver; leading them to several 1,000 yard seasons rushing.

If Shanahan becomes the new head coach, he’ll inherit already a proven team that can get into the playoffs; similar to what he inherited when he became the head coach for the Broncos in 1995 and he didn’t let the team slip much after he was named to the position, winning back-to-back Super Bowls in 1997 and 1998.

But does he have the same magic as he had with San Francisco between 1992-1994 and Denver between 1995 and 2008?

Despite having a weak base to build off of with the Redskins, Shanahan had looked as if he lost some of his magic as a offensive mastermind.

The hope will be, if the 49ers hire him, that the year off from coach had restored that magic after the craziness at Washington a few years ago.