Kyle Michael Shanahan (born December 14, 1979) is an American professional football coach who is the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL). He came to prominence as the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, whose offense in 2016 led the league in points scored and helped the team reach Super Bowl LI. Shanahan became the head coach of the 49ers the following season, who he has led to three division titles, five postseason appearances, four NFC Championship Game appearances, and two Super Bowl appearances (LIV and LVIII).
Shanahan was born in Minneapolis, where his father, Mike Shanahan, was the offensive coordinator at the University of Minnesota. He attended Saratoga High School in Saratoga, California, in 1994, while his father worked as offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers. Shanahan later attended Cherry Creek High School in Greenwood Village, Colorado, while his father served as head coach of the Denver Broncos.
Shanahan accepted a scholarship offer by Carl Franks of Duke University, but chose to transfer as a redshirt freshman to the University of Texas at Austin where he started out as a walk-on. Shanahan played wide receiver on a Longhorn team that featured future college coach Major Applewhite, future NFL assistant coach Richard Hightower (who worked with him in San Francisco) as well as future NFL players Roy Williams, Cedric Benson, Bo Scaife, Mike Williams, Quentin Jammer, and Chris Simms. Shanahan caught 14 passes for 127 yards in his career for the University of Texas at Austin.
I studied every potential Xs and Os play and issue possible. I spent my whole life working on that. My goal was that any question a player could have about anything on the field, I'd be able to answer it.
Shortly after graduating from Texas in 2003, Shanahan became a graduate assistant to Karl Dorrell at UCLA. As a graduate assistant, he worked with players like Maurice Jones-Drew, Marcedes Lewis, and Drew Olson. However, Shanahan still had to take classes and could not spend all his time on football.
Shanahan was hired as assistant coach for offensive quality control under head coach Jon Gruden with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2004. As a quality control coach, Shanahan helped break down game film and drew diagrams of plays for the playbook. He has said that his time spent using the computer program SuperPaint to draw up plays for Gruden introduced him to many plays used in the NFL.
In 2006, Shanahan was hired by Gary Kubiak to serve as the wide receivers coach for the Houston Texans. Kubiak had previously served as offensive coordinator under Mike Shanahan with the Broncos. At the time, Kyle Shanahan was the youngest position coach in the NFL. The following season, Shanahan became the Texans' quarterbacks coach. In 2007, he had also been offered to become offensive coordinator at the University of Minnesota, where former Broncos assistant Tim Brewster just became head coach. Shanahan declined, citing his decision to be an NFL coach. Shanahan was immediately considered the frontrunner for the vacant offensive coordinator position after Mike Sherman had left the Texans to take over as head coach at Texas A&M University.
On January 11, 2008, Shanahan was officially promoted, becoming the youngest coordinator in the NFL, being more than three years younger than Josh McDaniels of the New England Patriots. Despite his lack of experience, Shanahan found near instant success overseeing an NFL offense. The Texans finished their 2008 season third in yards per game. This reflected the individual success of his top offensive players that year. The Texans' starting quarterback Matt Schaub led the league in passing yards, and wide receiver Andre Johnson led the league in receiving yards.
Washington Redskins (2010–2013)
In 2010, Shanahan left the Texans to join his father, Mike, with the Washington Redskins. The Redskins' performance during his tenure led some to question whether Shanahan's hiring was an example of unearned nepotism. Washington struggled under Shanahan, failing to post a winning record for any of the three seasons that he was on staff. According to Shanahan, this poor performance helped him learn about the need to adjust his playbook when switching to a new team. Despite the overall team performance, the scheme and offense that Shanahan implemented during his time at Washington, especially his use of read option plays, was very highly regarded in the NFL. His future head coach at the Cleveland Browns, Mike Pettine, once said that Shanahan's offenses were some of the hardest to prepare for from the defensive side of the ball.
Conflict over how to manage the offense for star rookie quarterback, Robert Griffin III, dominated Shanahan's tenure with Washington. In the 2012 NFL Draft, Washington courted controversy by selecting two players at the quarterback position: Robert Griffin III in the first round and Kirk Cousins in the fourth round. Shanahan catered the offense to Griffin III, creating a playbook based on what he was used to at Baylor. However, in the Week 14 game against the Baltimore Ravens on December 9, Griffin III was injured when defensive end Haloti Ngata hit Griffin directly at his right knee, twisting it in the process. Kirk Cousins then came into the game and led the team to a 31–28 overtime victory. This injury forced the team to start Cousins in the team's week 15 game. ESPN has reported that team owner Dan Snyder assured Griffin III that no matter how well Cousins played, he would not get the starting spot. This incident led to a confrontation between Shanahan's father, head coach Mike Shanahan, and Snyder and created tension between the Shanahans and ownership for the rest of their tenure.
In 2012, Shanahan was fined $25,000 for insulting the replacement officials and confronting one after a loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
In early December 2013, ESPN reported that Mike Shanahan was frustrated with the special treatment that he believed that Robert Griffin III received from Snyder. This led Shanahan to preemptively clean out his office ahead of the start of the 2012–13 NFL playoffs. On December 30, 2013, Kyle, along with his father and some of the coaching staff, were fired from the Redskins.
On February 1, 2014, it was reported by media outlets that Shanahan was hired as offensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns. Prior to being hired by the Browns, he interviewed for the vacant offensive coordinator jobs held by the Miami Dolphins and Baltimore Ravens.
In May 2014, at the NFL Draft the Browns traded up to select the star college quarterback, Johnny Manziel. According to ESPN, the Browns front office's eagerness to replace starting quarterback Brian Hoyer with Manziel led to conflict with Browns coaches, including Shanahan. Manziel replaced Hoyer in the Week 13 match against the Buffalo Bills and was given the starting job two weeks later against the Cincinnati Bengals. However, Manziel struggled to execute Shanahan's scheme and played poorly, throwing two interceptions in the game and posting a quarterback rating of 1.0.
In January 2015, Shanahan compiled a 32-page document for the Browns explaining why it would be best for him to be released from the two remaining years of his contract. On January 8, 2015, the Browns accepted Shanahan's resignation from his offensive coordinator position, with ESPN reporting that the team and Shanahan were at odds over Johnny Manziel .
On January 18, 2015, the Atlanta Falcons hired Shanahan as their new offensive coordinator.
Shanahan's first season with the Falcons was a disappointment, with the offense ending the 2015 season ranked 21st in points. The offensive struggles included the Falcons' first shutout since 2004, losing 38–0 to the Carolina Panthers. Despite the lack of results, Shanahan believed that the team was really close to success, only needing a few extra pieces to significantly improve.