The year is 2010 and Washington has decided to make changes to its football team. Following a 4-12 season, Washington brought in NFL legend Mike Shanahan as head coach, two years after his departure from Denver, where he led the Broncos to back-to-back Super Bowls.
Shanahan brought some coaches with him to Washington. His son Kyle Shanahan (Offensive Coordinator) joined his staff, as did Sean McVay (Tight Ends), Matt LaFleur (Quarterbacks) and, a year later, Mike McDaniel (Offensive Assistant).
Over the next four years, these men would help create a new wave of offensive play calling in the NFL.
Washington didn’t do much winning under Shanahan over his four years as head coach. The team averaged 21 points per game and posted a 24-40 record.
Shanahan’s tenure in Washington can be accurately described as a disappointment, outside of one season, when Robert Griffin led the franchise to 10 wins in 2012.
This marked the end of Mike Shanahan’s coaching career, but it was just the beginning of his NFL legacy.
A blueprint was established in Washington for how teams could utilize a run-focused scheme that takes advantage of space any time it can. The scheme takes inspiration from the West Coast Offense, with quick-hitting passes meant to methodically push a defense down field with everything from precision passes to slant routes, screens and outs.
The running game is where the Shanahan Coaching Tree sets itself apart. The scheme is an outside zone run approach where, instead of blocking vertically, the linemen block horizontally to force the defenders to run across the field in an attempt to stretch them out toward the sideline.
The running game opens up the play-action game and allows for the passing game to take advantage of defenders who cheat up or stack the box.
Kyle Shanahan was the first coach to gain the league’s attention with this strategy. When he was hired as the Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator in 2015, he created an offense that was almost unstoppable by his second year. In 2016, the Falcons soared into the Super Bowl, with Shanahan winning the NFL’s Assistant Coach-of-the-Year award and quarterback Matt Ryan winning the league’s MVP.
The Falcons’ offense put up historic numbers, scoring 34 points per game (tied for 10th all-time) and ranking at the top of the league. In the playoffs, they would continue this domination, averaging 36 points per game.
Everything was rolling until midway through the third quarter of Super Bowl 51, when the Falcons suffered maybe the greatest collapse in sports history, blowing a 28-3 lead in a loss that will haunt Atlanta fans for the rest of their lives.
Fast forward seven years and Kyle Shanahan has continued to bolster his legacy. Shanahan has served as head coach of the 49ers since 2017. While he has yet to win that elusive Super Bowl, Shanahan is widely considered one of the best coaches in the league. He has led the 49ers to three conference championship games and a Super Bowl appearance.
This year, Shanahan has a starting quarterback who was the last pick in the 2022 Draft. He has turned Brock Purdy into an MVP candidate who boasts the second-best passer rating in the league at 112, thanks in large part to Shanahan’s system and his coach setting him up with quick, easy throws.
Sean McVay became the Los Angeles Rams head coach in 2017. Out of all of these coaches, he is the only one to have won a Super Bowl. He has suffered only one losing season in his six years with the team.
Like Kyle Shanahan, McVay started off as a run-first coach with limitations at his quarterback position. In 2018, his offense averaged 139 rushing YPG (third in the entire NFL). This dominance in the ground game helped lead to first-team All-Pro honors for Todd Gurley, who the year before won Offensive Player-of-the-Year Award under McVay.
McVay’s breakthrough season came in 2021, when he was finally gifted a star quarterback in a trade that sent Matthew Stafford to Los Angeles from Detroit. The Rams offense immediately became more pass-happy. Behind Stafford and wide receiver Cooper Cupp, the Rams won the Super Bowl.
Matt LaFleur had to wait until 2019 to get a head coaching job in Green Bay. But when he finally got it, he took off running, going 39-10 and breaking the all-time record for most wins by a coach in his first three years.
In those years, however, he couldn’t really run his Shanahan Offense because Aaron Rodgers was his quarterback and Rodgers – a future Hall-of-Famer – liked to push the ball down field.
With Rodgers leaving after last year, this season presents an opportunity for LaFleur to prove that he can lead a successful offense his way. So far, the results have been mixed, with the Packers sitting at 2-3 and the offense only averaging 23 PPG.
Finally there’s Mike McDaniel, who is still early on in his head coaching career. After landing the Dolphins’ head coaching job in 2022 – becoming the youngest head coach in football – he has led perhaps the most explosive offense in football over the past two seasons.
Last season, the Dolphins broke a six-year playoff drought and, this year, quarterback Tua Tagaviola leads the league in yards-per-attempt (9.5), 40-plus yard throws (6), and passer rating (114).
This is especially impressive because a big knock on Tua as a draft prospect was his lack of arm strength. Of course, having two of the most dynamic wide receivers in football with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle doesn’t hurt.
Who will be the next to come out of the Shanahan Tree?
