49ers path to NFC West title runs through another branch of Kyle Shanahans coaching tree
To reclaim supremacy in the NFC West, Kyle Shanahan may just have to find a way to beat … himself?Since the San Francisco 49ers last finished on top of the division, the landscape has changed.It’s no longer just Shanahan and Sean McVay finding the next frontiers in how to pre-snap motion defenders into a blender.
Their fingerprints are all over the whole division.In Seattle, former 49ers assistant Brian Fleury is calling plays in an offense installed by Klint Kubiak, another branch on the Shanahan coaching tree.And on Sunday afternoon, the offense that the Arizona Cardinals will run Sunday at Levi’s Stadium should look mighty familiar.After finishing a dismal 3-14 last season, they gave the axe to Jonathan Gannon, looked around the rest of the league and decided to get in on the trend … put in motion … by Shanahan and McVay a decade earlier.
Ahead of running into yet another former staffer in Mike LaFleur on the opposing sideline, Shanahan was asked if he takes any pride in seeing his coaching tree sprout.“Deep down probably yeah, and eventually,” the 10th-year head coach said.“But, it’s more irritation, especially when you have to run into them twice a year.”Shanahan, increasingly gray in the hair, is growing into somewhat of a godfather figure of the modern offense.
The Niners will face his system in some form or another in each of their first three games and for four of their first five weeks of the season.Of course, it’s all rooted in Bill Walsh’s West Coast offense, which Shanahan’s father, Mike, learned through poring over the tape of the legendary 49ers coach installing it himself.The elder Shanahan eventually took the system to Washington, where he passed it on to Kyle (and Sean).On Sunday, Shanahan will coach his 166th game with the 49ers, matching Walsh’s record for the most regular-season and playoff games coached in franchise history.Shanahan never met Walsh, but soon after taking the job in 2017 he said he was inspired by...