I believe the power brokers in SF were gone by then. He did a lot of that winning with some subpar talent in SF. Not a real good D and outside of TO, not a whole lot of talent on the offense either. Hearst was the RB, Garcia the QB, Stokes was the #2. Not an allstar group. Average to Above average yes. But, Bryant Young, Derek Smith and Ahmed Plummer where the best defensive guys.
Plus he made it to the playoffs his last 2 years there, which is why he got a 5 year 25 million dollar deal with Detroit.