49ers’ Kyle Shanahan leads group of 5 1st-time NFL coaches
SANTA CLARA — For Kyle Shanahan, getting NFL players to believe in you as a coach comes down to one main thing.
He had to prove that when he became the youngest coordinator in the NFL when he took over the Houston offense at age 28, dealt with criticisms of nepotism when he was dad’s offensive coordinator in Washington for four years and now in his first job as a head coach at any level in charge of the San Francisco 49ers.
“I’ve always felt no matter how old you are or what type of coach you are, if you can help a player get better then they’ll listen to you,” Shanahan said. “So that’s kind of been my deal my whole life and I just try to be honest with them.”
After a long career as a coordinator in the NFL, including last season when he led the NFL’s highest-scoring offense in the Atlanta Falcons to the Super Bowl, Shanahan is trying to have success at the head coaching level.
Many proven coordinators haven’t been able to make that transition, but Shanahan is eager to prove he can be more than just an offensive mastermind. He has won over a locker room that has gone through three coaches the past three years and is eager for some needed stability.
“You really, really respect the overall knowledge he has,” left tackle Joe Staley said. “I can’t stress that enough. He’s the smartest coach I’ve been around. When you have leadership like that, you have to raise you game.”
Shanahan is one of five first-time
NFL head coaches who were hired for the six openings this past offseason, joining Anthony Lynn of the Chargers, Sean McVay of the Rams, Buffalo’s Sean McDermott and Denver’s Vance Joseph.
That’s the most first-time coaches hired in one offseason since 2013 when five newcomers also got jobs. In a note of caution, only Arizona’s Bruce Arians is still on the job in season five.
That’s been part of a recent trend that has had retread coaches faring better than first-timers with 14 of the past 20 Super Bowl champions being on their second or third jobs led by coaches such as Bill Belichick, Pete Carroll and Tom Coughlin.
That hasn’t always been the case. In fact, 28 of the first 31 Super Bowl champions had first-time coaches such as Chuck Noll, Bill Walsh and Vince Lombardi, including 23 straight between the 1974 season and the 1996 seasons.