Getty Jon Gruden with Kyle Shanahan.
It didn’t long for Kyle Shanahan to take over a bad San Francisco 49ers team and turn them into Super Bowl contenders. As the son of a legendary head coach, it wasn’t always a given that Shanahan would succeed. However, he’s proven to be one of the best offensive minds in the NFL.
Just like his father, Shanahan has a slight connection to the Las Vegas Raiders franchise. Jon Gruden was actually the first coach to give him a job on a coaching staff. He was the Tampa Bay Buccanneers’ offensive quality control coach from 2004 to 2005. Shanahan recently had a chance to talk about what he learned for the current Raiders head coach.
“I had to draw all his plays, and Jon had more plays than anybody in football,” Shanahan told NBC Sports’ Chris Simms on Chris Simms Unbuttoned. “So I actually got to draw and have experience with every play that was being run in the NFL.”
Everybody knows at this point that Gruden has a ridiculous playbook. He’s an offensive guru, to say the least.
Offense on Steroids?
Shanahan wasn’t done talking about Gruden. He actually credited the coach for a lot of his success.
“I got everything from Jon, which was great for my mind at the time because it just put a lot of stuff into my head that I needed to learn,” Shanahan said.
Shanahan also dropped that “Jon Gruden was just offense on steroids.”
Gruden’s coaching may be small but it’s impressive. Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay also got his start in Tampa Bay under Gruden. He is another NFC West coach who was recently in the Super Bowl. Though Gruden hasn’t been to the big game in a while, it’s clear he’s a strong teacher for young coaches. It’ll be interesting to see if any other talented offensive minds come out of Las Vegas in a few years.
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Has Student Surpassed Teacher?
While the jury is still out if whether or not Gruden’s return to the NFL has been a success, it appears that his students have surpassed him. McVay and Shanahan have been responsible for some of the best offenses in the NFL over the last few seasons. They’ve clearly taken what they’ve learned from Gruden and adapted it to fit in better with the modern NFL.
Gruden would probably be the first to admit that he likes to keep things old school. That works sometimes but he hasn’t shown the ability to adapt. He hasn’t had the most dynamic weapons since returning to the Raiders. However, that will change this year as he’s got a lot more toys to play with. Now that he’s got more to work with, Gruden could prove that his offense isn’t dated. He runs a very efficient offense. The Raiders were 11th in the NFL in yards per game last season. Unfortunately, they were 24th in points per game. Gruden needs to get the team to score more for the offense to get respect.
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