National Football League

Kyle Shanahan's influence is all over the NFL. All that’s missing is a Super Bowl title

Updated Feb. 5, 2024 2:24 p.m. ET

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Ralph Vacchiano

NFC East Reporter

LAS VEGAS — The final season of Mike Shanahan's stellar coaching career was mostly a forgettable one. His Washington squad was a dismal 3-13. As soon as that 2013 season was over, he was fired.

The legacy of that season, though, became something remarkable because of the seeds that were planted on his coaching staff. It included five future head coaches — his son, Kyle, Sean McVay, Matt LaFleur, Mike McDaniel and Raheem Morris — and another (Bobby Slowik) who should be one soon. That's often the mark of a great head coach — how strong their coaching tree becomes.

And Kyle Shanahan's tree is already on its way.

So far, his staffs in San Francisco have produced three head coaches — McDaniel in Miami, DeMeco Ryans in Houston, and Robert Saleh with the Jets. Slowik, a branch of both Shanahans' trees, will surely be another one. Steve Wilks, the San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator this season, had two interviews for head coaching jobs in the last month, as well.

But while those branches are growing, they are still missing the one thing that really gives a tree its strength. None of them — including Kyle Shanahan — have won a Super Bowl championship.

If Shanahan's 49ers can do it on Sunday in Super Bowl LVIII against the Kansas City Chiefs, the branches of his tree may end up reaching all over the NFL.

"A Super Bowl, especially if you win, can change the perception of everyone," said one prominent NFL coaching agent. "Teams follow trends, and they want to steal what works. Sometimes they just need to be reminded of what's actually working."

That somewhat explains why Shanahan's assistants weren't all over the coaching carousel this offseason, even though the 49ers went 13-3 and reached their third straight NFC Championship Game. The 54-year-old Wilks, who had a disastrous, one-year stint as the Arizona Cardinals head coach in 2018, was the only one to get head coaching interviews — with the Atlanta Falcons and the Los Angeles Chargers. Slowik, now the Houston Texas offensive coordinator, was the only other branch of his tree to get any attention, interviewing for top jobs with the Commanders, Falcons, Titans, Panthers and Seahawks.

John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan have built 49ers into a strong Super Bowl contender

There were others, though, who got some play for next-level jobs. Passing game coordinator Klint Kubiak interviewed with the Saints for their offensive coordinator role and is reportedly expected to be hired for that job following the Super Bowl. So did quarterbacks coach Brian Griese. And tight ends coach Brian Fleury reportedly interviewed with the Patriots for their offensive coordinator job.

"Sometimes it takes time," the agent said. "Sometimes these guys just need to go elsewhere to show they can take what they learned and do it on their own."

That might be especially true with Shanahan's offensive assistants. He is the defacto offensive coordinator in San Francisco and calls all the offensive plays. That probably explains why two of the three head coaches his 49ers staffs have produced have come from the defensive side. 

That's not always a problem, of course. As one NFL executive put it, "The same is true of Andy Reid and Sean McVay, and plenty of their offensive assistants get hired" for head coaching jobs. McVay calls his own plays in L.A., but his offensive staff there did produce two head coaches (Zac Taylor in Cincinnati and LaFleur in Green Bay).

That's because what drives almost everything in the NFL the most, though, is success. Not only has McVay won a Super Bowl, but Taylor took the Bengals to the Super Bowl in his third season, and LaFleur guided the Packers to two NFC Championship Games in his first two years in Green Bay. That kind of success is why everyone around the league seems to always be looking for "the next Sean McVay."

Brock Purdy and the 49ers' inspirational road to the Super Bowl

Shanahan's disciples are just beginning to have success. McDaniel, the former offensive coordinator in San Francisco, had the Dolphins looking like one of the best teams in the AFC in just his second season, though it ended with a disappointing, 26-7 loss in Kansas City in the wild-card round. And Ryans, a former defensive coordinator, earned rave reviews for an incredible first year in Houston where he got the Texans to 10-7 and a playoff berth behind rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud.

They were preceded by Saleh, Shanahan's original defensive coordinator in San Francisco, who became the Jets head coach in 2021. His three seasons in New York have been disastrous, with an 18-33 record, though much of that had to do with major quarterback issues, including losing veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers to an Achilles injury four plays into this season.

Regardless, even Saleh's failures haven't caused teams to look away from what Shanahan is building in San Francisco. The league sees the 64-51 record, the four 10-win seasons in seven years, the four trips to the playoffs with no first-round losses and eight total wins, and knows he didn't do it all by himself. His assistants have had a lot to do with their success.

But if any one of them were to win a Super Bowl — especially the man at the root of the tree — it will make a lot of NFL teams take a deeper look at the current and former 49ers assistants the next time the coaching carousel begins. There are plenty of branches already, just like there once were for Shanahan's father.

With one win on Sunday, though, there will surely soon be a whole lot more.

Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.

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Ralph Vacchiano