San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan has been able to balance what he’s learned from NFL coaches Jon Gruden and Gary Kubiak.
SANTA CLARA >> There are moments when 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan can’t figure out whether to apply everything he knows like Jon Gruden or zero in on what he thinks works best as taught by Gary Kubiak.
OK, that’s a stretch. Shanahan’s father, Mike Shanahan, won two Super Bowls as a head coach, the same as Gruden and Kubiak combined, so he’ll always be the No. 1 influence. Yet every coach is a compilation of what he’s learned, and Gruden and Kubiak left a lasting impact on Kyle Shanahan as a young coach.
“The two people I started out with were completely different offensive coaches, which I think really helped me,” Shanahan said Wednesday.
Shanahan’s first NFL job after being a graduate assistant at UCLA was under Gruden with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2004-05 as an offensive assistant. Then it was on to the Houston Texans in 2006, coaching wide receivers, then quarterbacks in 2007 before becoming offensive coordinator in 2008-09 with Kubiak as the head coach.
Kubiak and Shanahan were acquainted, although not NFL equals. When Mike Shanahan was an assistant with the Broncos, Kubiak was the backup quarterback to John Elway before getting into coaching.
Kyle was on the verge of becoming a teenager.
“I knew Gary when I was younger, being a ball boy, which probably wasn’t a good first impression for myself to him,” Shanahan said.
Years later, Kyle was talking strategy with Gruden, and then Kubiak. The two coaches were nothing alike, other than a desire to put young assistants to work and a love for football.
Turns out that worked out perfectly for Shanahan.
“It was two extremes being with someone like Jon Gruden, who does every play known to man and you have so much scheme, which was awesome,” Shanahan said. “You had to learn it all. Then you went to Gary, who believed less is more, not having as much. You come from one extreme, and that’s all you know and then you go to the other and it’s totally different.”
While Gruden is head coach of the Raiders, Kubiak has made his presence felt as an assistant head coach to Mike Zimmer and offensive adviser for the Minnesota Vikings, who visit the 49ers on Saturday in an NFC divisional playoff game at Levi’s Stadium.
As head coach with Denver, Kubiak’s Broncos won Super Bowl 50 over the Carolina Panthers at Levi’s Stadium following the 2015 season. He left after the 2016 season for health reasons, rejoining the Vikings in 2019.
Shanahan’s first NFL job after being a graduate assistant at UCLA was under Gruden, who also had Rams coach Sean McVay and former Washington coach Jay Gruden on his staff as young assistants. Jon Gruden would drill the trio on the most detailed parts of coaching, even insisting they draw concentric circles on the board representing offense against defense.
The young coaches were also encouraged to learn as much defensive football as they could, with Shanahan, an offensive assistant, also taking in the beliefs of defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and line coach Rod Marinelli.
Jon Gruden’s philosophy was to overload players with scheme and ideas, pushing learning to the max through excess information. Kubiak believed in perfecting a specific way of play within a smaller concentric circle.
Kyle Shanahan watched and learned, both in Tampa Bay and Houston.
As Shanahan assumed jobs as offensive coordinator under his father in Washington (2010-13), Cleveland (2014) and Atlanta (2015-16), he refined everything he learned while keeping in mind the Gruden and Kubiak extremes.
“You start to realize the pluses and minuses of both. It helps you develop your own opinion on what it is,” Shanahan said.
Shanahan said he can see Kubiak’s imprint on the Vikings’ offense.
“You can see it all over. I mean, the run game, the pass game, the style of how they call it, down and distance-wise,” Shanahan said. “It’s extremely similar.”