Dirty Bird Daily: Kyle Shanahan’s best bet is with the Denver Broncos
By John Follett
Welcome back Dirty Bird Daily, the FanSided spot for ranting on daily Atlanta Falcons news and rumors. Today’s DBD centers on current Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator and ‘red hot’ head coaching candidate, Kyle Shanahan.
Not long ago I suggested that we should expect Kyle Shanahan as the next head coach of the Rams. He will interview with Los Angeles and may still end up their guy, but some more attractive opportunities have opened since my article was published.
Kyle spent a lot of time growing up in Denver and it’s the job that likely offers the most stability
Word out of the NFL yesterday is that Kyle Shanahan prefers the Broncos, a team his father ran for 14 seasons. The elder Shanahan was also the offensive coordinator in Denver for a chunk of the late-80s. Suffice to say, Kyle spent a lot of time growing up in Denver and it’s the job that likely offers the most stability.
Shanahan would really have to prove himself as a young, first time head coach. The Denver Broncos offer the best chance for him to win right away and build a legacy that resembles his father’s.
Denver is far from a team in “rebuild” mode and will carry over their strong defense into 2017. The Broncos offer Shanahan the opportunity to go get his own quarterback, a situation more favorable than falling in on Jared Goff in Los Angeles. Goff is a talented young arm but requires some work. The Rams also gave up quite a bit in future draft considerations to get Goff last April.
Related Story: Who would replace Shanahan as offensive coordinator?
If I’m John Elway, I bring Kyle in as soon as possible. Say what you will about Mike Shanahan, but he provided the Broncos with a long period of stability. Of course that period included a pair of Super Bowl wins. Kyle is very familiar with what it takes to win in Denver and offers minimal transition with the offense. Gary Kubiak ran that same offense built around the West Coast zone blocking scheme that Kyle operates in Atlanta.
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The Broncos need some offensive upgrading, but their personnel remains best-suited to operate under a West Coast system. Imagine Kyle Shanahan taking over as head coach and bringing Matt Schaub as his short-term starter. Add in a Devonta Freeman-type back and a 2017 playoff run is very reasonable. Denver is unlike other vacancies in which poor coaching led to consistently poor team performance.
The only thing I see working against Kyle is his age. It’s understandable the Broncos may be uneasy about hiring a young guy with no prior head coaching experience. Things didn’t necessarily work out great with a then-32-year old Josh McDaniels. On the flip side, 55-year old Gary Kubiak has stepped away from coaching due to health concerns.
Dirty Bird Daily was initially the brainchild of Freddie Boston, former Lead Editor at Blogging Dirty. Freddie, the 2015 FanSided NFL Editor the Year, has since moved onto covering the Green Bay Packers at Lombardi Ave. If anyone has a few minutes, drop Freddie a line to let him know Matt Ryan, not Aaron Rodgers, in the NFL’s MVP.