Shanahan using dad to team’s advantage
Further proof of Kyle Shanahan’s cutting-edge intellect: The 49ers’ head coach has instituted a Take Your Father to Work Day.
As far as can be determined, Shanahan is the only 49ers employee availing himself of this program. According to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco, Mike Shanahan, whose 20 years as an NFL head coach included a pair of Super Bowl victories, drops in remotely to review son Kyle’s practice sessions and meetings on a regular basis.
No kidding. Shanahan the elder has an iPad, and he’s not afraid to use it.
“My mom doesn’t like it, though,” Kyle Shanahan told Maiocco, “because he’s still working at their house, and she doesn’t get why he won’t come out of the film room.”
The son contends his father hasn’t lost a step.
“I look into it what he says,” Kyle Shanahan said. “And it’s nice to have another set of eyes. Where, ‘Hey, I missed that.’ I’ll go back and check that. Sometimes I agree with him, sometimes I don’t.”
In his prime, Mike Shanahan was an offensive wizard. He served as the 49ers’ offensive coordinator from 199294. Steve Young used to say that when Shanahan distributed the game plan each week — so novel, so creative — “that paper was smoking!”
Mike’s last season with the 49ers resulted in a Super Bowl victory. After that he was head coach for Washington for four years and Kyle was his offensive coordinator.
The elder Shanahan doesn’t restrict his 49ers interactions to his son. Last season he watched film with quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who was recovering from ACL surgery on his knee.
Reported by Bay Area News Group 49ers beat writer Cam Inman: “Shanahan said the injury early on to Garoppolo, and any quarterback early in the season, means that quarterback is no longer the focus; it’s the backup-turned-starting quarterback who has to work on the game plan with the coaching staff. Shanahan said he just talked football with Garoppolo.
“I had a chance to sit down with Jimmy and just talk about defenses for a couple weeks,” Shanahan told Inman. “Talk about terminology of defenses; blitz schemes, zone schemes, then go through the daily installation, where he could just sit back and relax and we could just talk football. I got a chance to relax and have some fun and at the same time, get to study some football together.”