Final 4 NFL Teams All Have Offensive-Minded Head Coaches

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Chris Foerster had been an NFL assistant for nearly two decades when he first met Kyle Shanahan, long before he became one of the league’s most accomplished play-callers.

Shanahan was in his third year as an NFL offensive coordinator when Foerster joined head coach Mike Shanahan’s staff in Washington as offensive line coach in 2010. He was immediately impressed by Shanahan’s knowledge, creativity, and teaching ability.

That has only grown over their four years together in Washington and the last four in San Francisco, where Foerster has worked as an assistant on Shanahan’s staff.

“I’ve been amazed since working with him, and I won’t stop,” Foerster said. “It’s just how he does it and his understanding of what he’s doing.”

Productive Offenses Without Elite Quarterback Play

Shanahan’s success in San Francisco overseeing productive offenses without elite quarterback play is one of the reasons why so many teams look for the next trendy, play-calling offensive coach to take over their teams every January.

All four conference championship game head coaches have an offensive background, with Andy Reid of Kansas City and Zac Taylor of Cincinnati calling plays like Shanahan, while Philadelphia’s Nick Sirianni delegated that duty during his first season.

“Plays are just played,” said Shanahan. “It’s how you connect them, how you hide them, how you do things around them, and how you coach them.”

Shanahan and Reid are two of the best at it, and their coaching styles have had a big impact on modern offenses. Almost half of the NFL teams run offenses that were inspired by their ideas.

Shanahan’s offense is built around the running game, with his dedication leading to opportunities with play-action passes downfield.

The Niners Disguise Their Intentions

“He’s not just copying other people’s plays,” said 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans. “He has that very creative mind, and he’s always putting his players in position to make plays. That is what distinguishes him from the other coordinators in the league.”

The Niners disguise their intentions with frequent motion and different formations, and Shanahan has designed a nearly position-less offense that allows him to move playmakers like Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, George Kittle, and fullback Kyle Juszczyk all over the field to create mismatches.

“He pays attention to every detail,” said 49ers rookie quarterback Brock Purdy. “Every day, he’s the one installing the plays, which is pretty cool to have your head ball coach teach you what you’re running.”

Shanahan has updated his father’s offense when Denver went to the Super Bowl twice in the 1990s.

Big Plays In-Store This Season

He has amassed a comprehensive knowledge of his system, allowing him to adapt plays from his past to his current team.

According to Foerster, Shanahan also has the uncanny ability to see how a defense is playing the Niners during a game and pull out a play they didn’t even practice that week.

This has already resulted in several big plays this season.

“He’s just looking for that dagger,” Foerster explained. “Where is that play that I believe will put them over the top on this one?”

Reid takes a different approach, relying much more on the passing game in his career with an offense that peaked when Patrick Mahomes took over as quarterback in Kansas City.

Reid also enjoys using gadget plays, whether it’s a 1949 Rose Bowl nfl play he used against s in the Super Bowl three years ago or the “ring-around-the-Rosie” Snow Globe play against the Raiders in Week 18.

Not All Head Coaches Call The Plays

“You want to have fun, but you also want to score,” Reid explained. “It’s not fun not to be doing that.”

Since Mahomes took over in 2018, the Chiefs have averaged a league-best 30.1 points per game, 3.6 more than No. 2 Tampa Bay and a larger gap between the Buccaneers and the 16th-place team.

“With Coach Reid, he can get anyone (open),” tight end Travis Kelce nfl explained. “He can get my dad open if he was out there. So I’ve been extremely fortunate to be under his direction, programmed the way he is because I genuinely believe he does it correctly.”

Not all head coaches still alive in the playoffs call the plays, with Sirianni delegating those duties to coordinator Shane Steichen during his first year in Philadelphia in 2021.

Instead of constantly looking at his play sheet for the next play to call, Sirianni said this has allowed him to better manage the game and deal with defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon and special teams coordinator Michael Clay.

“My head coach’s job is to manage the game. “I understand that everyone does it a little differently, and what works best for us is that I do it this way,” he said. “We like the way things are going. We’re always trying to improve it, but I’ve got great coaches I can rely on, and Shane is doing an excellent job calling it.”

SOURCE – (AP)