Rookie coaches to tangle tonight in S.F.
McVay, Shanahan are former colleagues
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan took similar paths on their journey to becoming NFL coaches.
Both rose from famous football families to their first NFL jobs as quality control assistants on Jon Gruden’s staffs in Tampa Bay and then spent four years together on Kyle’s father Mike’s staff in Washington.
Now McVay and Shanahan are firsttime head coaches ready to face off as opponents tonight when McVay’s Los Angeles Rams (1-1) face Shanahan’s San Francisco 49ers (0-2).
“Once I got around Kyle, it takes you about two minutes to realize what a bright offensive mind he is,” McVay said.
“The next couple of years we just really continued to grow in our friendship and I learned a lot from him. … He’s one of the guys I respect as much as anyone in this business and he’s been a huge influence on my coaching career.”
McVay, the grandson of former 49ers executive John McVay, capitalized on the four years as an assistant for Washington when Kyle Shanahan was offensive coordinator to take over that job when Jay Gruden replaced Mike Shanahan as head coach and Kyle left for Cleveland.
Last season, San Francisco finished 2-14, with both victories coming over the Rams.
VIKINGS: Minnesota quarterback Sam Bradford says his left knee is feeling better this week, raising the possibility he’ll return from injury after a one-game absence.
Bradford said he’s planning to test the knee in practice. He took limited turns last week, because of soreness and swelling. After going through pregame warmups Sunday at Pittsburgh, Bradford was ruled out. Case Keenum took over at quarterback for the Vikings, who lost 26-9 to the Steelers.
Bradford said he hurt the knee in the season opener against New Orleans. Bradford has twice had his left ACL surgically repaired.
TEXANS: J.J. Watt brushed off the fact that he’ll be playing against New England with a broken left ring finger.
“It’s not going to bother me too much. It’s broken but not bad,” he said wiggling the bandaged digit. “It’s just a finger.”
Some might cringe at the thought of playing football with a broken finger, but after missing 13 games last season following his second back surgery, this injury doesn’t seem as if it’s a big deal to Houston’s star defensive end.
He noted that the break hasn’t really made that much of a difference because he already had a problem with that finger before he broke it in Houston’s season-opening loss to Jacksonville.
SEAHAWKS: Richard Sherman again took shots at the NFL, saying the injury reports that teams are required to produce each week are simply to help gamblers.
The Seattle defensive back has been listed on the injury report each of the first two weeks this season, first with a thigh injury and last week with a hamstring injury. He was not listed at all last year even though Seahawks coach Pete Carroll revealed after the season that Sherman had played through a significant knee injury, which led to concerns that Seattle was not being accurate in its reporting.
Sherman said Wednesday that he believes the injury report is just to help set point spreads on games. “I thought we weren’t a gambling league and we were against all those things. But our injury report is specifically to make sure the gamblers get their odds right,” he said.
Sherman joked that this week he would be listed with a toe injury.
NFLPA: DeMaurice Smith has been re-elected as executive director of the players’ union in a special committee vote. The 14-0 vote took place Tuesday night. BRONCOS: Outside linebacker Von Miller (knee) was limited at practice Wednesday, as was nickel defensive back Bradley Roby (ankle), but coach Vance Joseph said he had no concerns about their availability Sunday.