Even before Kyle Shanahan was a hot coordinator, Bears special teams coordinator Richard Hightower knew Shanahan had what it took to become a successful head coach.
“I saw head-coaching qualities in Kyle my senior year in college,” said Hightower, a fellow walk-on at Texas with Shanahan in 1999. “He was just so detailed and disciplined in the way he ran his routes as a wide receiver. He was really personable in terms of dealing with everybody in the locker room. He could deal with and reach any type of player because of the way … he got along with everybody. I thought he would be successful at anything he wanted to do in life. Some people just have it.”
Hightower later saw Shanahan as a position coach with the Texans, a coordinator with the Redskins and worked for Shanahan in 2017-21 as the 49ers’ special teams coordinator.
“When he was a position coach, he was always designing the offense then to become a coordinator,” Hightower said. “And when he became a coordinator, he was always thinking about what he would do if he became a head coach.”
Shanahan, the son of two-time Super Bowl winning coach Mike Shanahan (the former East Leyden star quarterback), was the Ben Johnson of the 2017 NFL head-coaching cycle, when he was the offensive coordinator of the Falcons. In 2016, the Falcons led the NFL in scoring (33.8 points per game), quarterback Matt Ryan won the NFL’s Most Valuable Player Award and the Falcons reached the Super Bowl, losing in excruciating fashion to the Patriots in overtime.
That didn’t assure Shanahan of success as a head coach, especially with the 49ers coming off a 2-14 season under Chip Kelly. In fact, Shanahan was the 49ers’ fourth head coach in four seasons (following Jim Harbaugh in 2014, Jim Tomsula in 2015 and Kelly).
After going 6-10 and 4-12 in Shanahan’s first two seasons, the 49ers blossomed in 2019 and have become a standard of excellence. They made four NFC championship game appearances in five seasons from 2019-23, with offenses and defenses ranked in the top 10 in scoring. They’ve played in two Super Bowls (losing to the Chiefs in 2019 and the 2023).
Still, hiring the hot offensive coordinator is dicey. Brian Daboll was nearly as hot as Johnson when he was the Bills’ offensive coordinator in 2021. The Bills were third in the NFL in scoring, with Josh Allen reaching another level in the playoffs (nine touchdowns, no interceptions and passer ratings of 157.6 and 136.0 against the Patriots and Chiefs).
The Giants hired Daboll, pairing him with former first-round draft pick (No. 6 overall) Daniel Jones. But after one playoff season that goaded the Giants into signing Jones to a four-year, $160 million contract, it’s been a downhill slide.
The Giants have gone 6-11 and 3-14 the past two seasons and Jones already is gone — benched and then cut after posting a 76.6 passer rating (10 touchdowns, 13 interceptions) in 16 starts. Daboll survived, but it’s not heading in the right direction.
It’s difficult to predict. But there’s one common thread that ties most of the former coordinators who have had success as head coaches: They get their side of the ball right. Shanahan, the Rams’ Sean McVay, the Eagles’ Nick Sirianni, the Packers’ Matt LaFleur and so far, the Vikings’ Kevin O’Connell have all done what Matt Nagy was unable to do with the Bears — build a consistently productive offense.
Johnson seems to have a good head start in achieving that landmark with the Bears, with quarterback Caleb Williams likely the reason Johnson is here. There are holes to fill — particularly on the offensive line — but a lot to work with.
Johnson surely will emphasize his responsibility for every phase of the team at his introductory press conference Wednesday. But Job 1 is getting the offense right. Everything else seems to fall into place after that.
