Kyle Shanahan

Kyle Shanahan (born December 14, 1979) is an American football coach who is the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL). Shanahan, at 28 years, 26 days old, became the youngest coordinator in the NFL when he was promoted by the Houston Texans on January 11, 2008.^[1] His father, Mike Shanahan, is the former head coach for the Los Angeles Raiders, Denver Broncos, and Washington Redskins.

Earlier 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, Chris Simms. Shanahan and Simms are close friends, and Shanahan has a tattoo of Simms' initials on his leg.^[2]

Coaching career

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.^[4] 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.^[5]

On January 11, 2008, he 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 with the Washington Redskins. The Redskins' performance during his tenure led some to question whether Shanahan's hiring was an example of unearned nepotism.^[6] In 2012, Shanahan was fined $25,000 for insulting the replacement officials and confronting one after a loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.^[7] On December 30, 2013, he, along with his father, was 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.^[8] On January 8, 2015, Shanahan resigned from his offensive coordinator position after disagreeing with the front office's mandate that rookie QB Johnny Manziel start.^[9]

On January 18, 2015, the Atlanta Falcons announced that they intend on hiring of Shanahan as their new offensive coordinator.^[10]

Shanahan is now the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons.

References

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