Mike Shanahan teaching tree: Son Kyle, Matt LaFleur face off in battle of teaching tree merchandise

NFL teaching is all about who you realize.

To that finish, there is not any one which Kyle Shanahan in all probability is aware of higher than his dad, Mike, the two-time Tremendous Bowl-winning former head coach of the Broncos and the architect of one of the vital distinguished offensive schemes within the NFL as we speak.

Whereas a lot consideration is paid to Invoice Belichick and Andy Reid’s bushes — the fruits of that are polar opposites — in all probability no tree has borne higher fruit than the Mike Shanahan tree. Sunday evening, two of Shanahan’s proteges confronted off towards one another as soon as once more, with son Kyle’s 49ers going through off towards Matt LaFleur and the Packers.

Whereas Mike Shanahan has been retired since 2013, his affect continues to be felt throughout the NFL — and his fingerprints are nonetheless throughout offensive playbooks.

Kyle Shanahan

Head teaching file: 31-35

Mike’s son has had fairly the profitable run as 49ers head coach, even with a couple of tough information and a continuing shuffling of the quarterback place since he walked within the constructing.

Apparently, Shanahan has only a single profitable season with the Niners (13-3) however a variety of the general file will be attributed to accidents and roster turnover. 

With Shanahan discovering his passer of the longer term in Trey Lance, there is a good probability his scheme will evolve once more as soon as Lance takes the reins within the close to future.

Matt LaFleur

Head teaching file: 27-7

When the Packers employed LaFleur after simply two seasons as an OC (with the Rams and Titans), some eyebrows had been raised: Right here was a 39-year-old first-time head coach being given cost of 1 the NFL’s all-time nice passers. 

Boneheaded teaching selections apart, LaFleur’s squad has made it to back-to-back NFC championship video games with identitcal 13-3 information. He additionally has gotten an MVP season from Rodgers, so he have to be doing one thing proper in Inexperienced Bay.

LaFleur and Kyle Shanahan labored alongside one another yearly however one between 2008 and 2016, so you may say they got here up collectively.

Gary Kubiak

Head teaching file: 82-75 (61-64 with Texans, 21-11 with Broncos)

Kubiak is arguably probably the most profitable of any of Shanahan’s disciples, and alongside Shanahan he helped to create the system that so many coaches within the league nonetheless use as we speak.

As an OC, Kubiak helped information the Broncos’ offense throughout Denver’s Tremendous Bowl title seasons of 1997 and 1998. He stayed with the Broncos till he was employed as Texans head coach in 2006. Kubiak would follow Houston till he was fired in 2013. He resurfaced with the Ravens in 2014 as their OC earlier than returning to Denver in 2015 as its head coach. 

His return to the Mile Excessive Metropolis was a little bit of a hit: The Broncos received Tremendous Bowl 50 — albeit with an all-time protection and never its offense, which was led by a broken-down Peyton Manning. Nonetheless, Kubiak deserves credit score for being one of the vital profitable coaches to spin out from the Shanahan line.

Sean McVay

Head teaching file: 45-21

Each NFL workforce needs to seek out the “subsequent McVay” — however possibly they need to be on the lookout for the subsequent piece to fall from the Shanahan tree, as a substitute.

Whereas there’s one thing of shared custody of McVay contemplating the Rams coach bought his profession began with the Buccaneers and Jon Gruden in 2008, the wunderkind additionally served underneath Shanahan with Washington earlier than Jay Gruden promoted him to OC in 2014. 

Combining Gruden and Shanahan’s minds makes for a really interesting head teaching prospect, and to this point, it has labored out simply high-quality for the Rams: McVay hasn’t had a dropping season but as head coach and certain will not anytime quickly together with his pairing together with his new quarterback, Matthew Stafford.

Others

— Former Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn bought his begin with Mike Shanahan in 2000, working as a Broncos particular groups assistant. He additionally performed underneath Shanahan for 3 seasons.

— Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski frolicked alongside Kubiak with the Vikings in 2019.

— Falcons head coach Arthur Smith changed Matt LaFleur as Titans offensive coordinator and used the identical rules left behind by the Shanahan understudy. 

— Jets offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur, brother of Matt, was a part of San Francisco’s teaching employees underneath Kyle Shanahan.