Kyle Shanahan

Kyle Michael Shanahan (born December 14, 1979) is an American football coach who is the current head coach and offensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL). Previously, he served as the offensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons, whose offense led the league in points scored in 2016 and helped the team reach Super Bowl LI. In addition to the 49ers and Falcons, Shanahan has coached for the Houston Texans, Washington Redskins and Cleveland Browns. He is the son of former NFL coach Mike Shanahan.

Early life
Shanahan was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, while his father coached at the University of Minnesota. He 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 redshirt freshman to the University of Texas at Austin. Shanahan played wide receiver on a Longhorn team that featured future college coach Major Applewhite as well as future NFL players Roy Williams, Cedric Benson, Bo Scaife, Mike Williams, Quentin Jammer, and Chris Simms. Shanahan and Simms are close friends, and Simms has a tattoo of Shanahan's initials on his leg.

Coaching career
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. Soon after he graduated from Texas in 2003, Shanahan became graduate assistant to Karl Dorrell at UCLA. Following that season, Shanahan was hired as assistant coach for offensive quality control under head coach Jon Gruden with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Gruden had held a similar position with the San Francisco 49ers in 1990, at about the same age that Shanahan had in 2004.

In 2006, Shanahan was hired by Gary Kubiak to serve as 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. A season later, Shanahan received another promotion to become the Texans quarterback 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 dealt as 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.

Offensive coordinator
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. In 2010, Shanahan left the Texans to join his father, Mike Shanahan, with the Washington Redskins. The Redskins' performance during his tenure led some to question whether Shanahan's hiring was an example of unearned nepotism. In 2012, Shanahan was fined $25,000 for insulting the replacement officials and confronting one after a loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. On December 30, 2013, Kyle, along with his father and the rest 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. On January 8, 2015, Shanahan resigned from his offensive coordinator position after disagreeing with the front office's mandate that rookie quarterback Johnny Manziel start.

On January 18, 2015, the Atlanta Falcons hired Shanahan as their new offensive coordinator. After going 8–8 in 2015, the Falcons' offense under Shanahan was the highest-scoring offense in the league in 2016 and earned an 11–5 record, a division title, and a Super Bowl LI berth against the New England Patriots. Shanahan was named the NFL Assistant Coach of the Year for the 2016 season.

During Super Bowl LI, the Falcons held a 28–3 lead over the Patriots, in part thanks to Shanahan's play-calling and the Falcons' execution of those plays. However, Shanahan was criticized for being too aggressive by not using a ball-control running attack late in the game which, along with a crucial turnover by Falcons' quarterback Matt Ryan, resulted in the Falcons losing by a score of 34–28 in overtime.

Head coach
On February 6, 2017, one day after the Super Bowl LI loss, Shanahan was officially hired as the next head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. . He won his first preseason game 27–17 against the Kansas City Chiefs on August 11, 2017. On November 12, 2017, he won his first regular season game against the New York Giants by a score of 31–21. On December 3, 2017, he led the 49ers to a 15–14 victory over the Chicago Bears, which marked the first start for quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo as a 49er. On December 31, 2017, the last day of the 2017 NFL regular season, Shanahan and the 49ers defeated the Los Angeles Rams 34–13, ending the season on a 5-game win streak and winning 6 out of the last 7 games.

Coaching tree
NFL head coaches under whom Shanahan has served:
 * Jon Gruden, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, (2004-2005)
 * Gary Kubiak, Houston Texans, (2006-2009)
 * Mike Shanahan, Washington Redskins, (2010-2013)
 * Mike Pettine, Cleveland Browns, (2014)
 * Dan Quinn, Atlanta Falcons, (2015-2016)