Is Kyle Shanahan Ready To Be A Head Coach?
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
So the San Francisco 49ers grabbed the top assistant coach in the NFL in 2016 in Kyle Shanahan. Shanahan is the son of former NFL coach and 2-time Super Bowl winner Mike Shanahan. He has been an offensive coordinator for 8 years, with Houston, Washington, Cleveland, and Atlanta, enjoying the best of success with the Falcons and getting them to their 2nd ever Super Bowl in franchise history. So it seems to think that Kyle is primed for a successful coaching gig.
Well...........I don't know.
Like father, like son
The issue is that Kyle Shanahan is his father's son. If something doesn't go his way he will argue about it with the opposing view, and sometimes get heated with it. Mike Shanahan had a history, whether he is right or wrong, having major conflicts with coaches, players, and owners from his time in Oakland (Al Davis, Art Shell), Denver (Dan Reeves), and Washington (Dan Snyder, Donovan McNabb, RG3). And while you can never take away any Super Bowl trophies, Shanahan in his time in Denver had John Elway. Before and after that, his career as a head coach has been overall mediocre and has a penchant for being impatient over his time as a head coach, benching players quickly and not really giving them a chance. And he always has the "I am always right" mentality, which really probably got him fired everywhere he has gone.
Kyle Shanahan in his short time with Washington with his dad had issues with McNabb and Griffin while getting into it with replacement refs in Cleveland and also having issues with ownership in Cleveland over Johnny Manziel (to which I agree he is right in that case). And he didn't do many favors to start his tenure in Atlanta, somewhat ripping Falcons receiver Roddy White for not reading the playbook and somewhat shifting the blame for the Falcons/Matt Ryan's offensive struggles in 2015, whether it was the team not getting him or executing well. And while Shanahan had a great year for Atlanta in 2016, getting Ryan an MVP and help the Falcons get to the Super Bowl. And he took responsibility for the porous playcalling in the 4th quarter so I think he is slightly ahead of him on that. Of course and while I agree with him on Devonta Freeman that he missed a key block where Ryan fumbled, he somewhat said Freeman blew the assignment to which Freeman got on the defensive. Now, whether or not he was right Shanahan has to learn not to really say anything that really "outs" a player like he did here. And that was his problem with his dad, which really became his downfall for his coaching career.
The other issue is that Shanahan's success in Atlanta more or less was because the talent he already had with the likes of Ryan, Freeman, and Julio Jones. He never had that in Cleveland and to a lesser extent in Washington (though Alfred Morris was a guy very useful that they got out of nowhere). So you do wonder if Shanahan can succeed when he is starting from scratch.
I think if Shanahan doesn't have the 49ers winning by 2019 he may be looking to update his resume. IF he is able not to follow his father's footsteps entirely and burn bridges in the process, he will have a good run. But if he runs into guys that he cannot work with, he will probably not have a shot at another head coaching gig in a long time. My assumption is with a whole new management system out there and probably a new quarterback, San Francisco will at least be more up than down. But it will have to be everybody working together and not throwing people out there. But right now, Shanahan has to keep his mouth closed at the right times or the 49ers will remain a mess for a while.
-Fan in the Obstructed Seat
