{"id":850048,"date":"2026-10-03T15:51:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T15:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/850048\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T15:51:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T15:51:22","slug":"how-mike-shanahans-offense-shaped-the-modern-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/850048\/","title":{"rendered":"How Mike Shanahan’s offense shaped the modern NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bubby Brister sat out the 1996 NFL season after a decade-long career as a longtime backup quarterback for three different franchises. He had played for five different offensive coordinators, but never got to play in a West Coast style-offense, specifically a system like coach Mike Shanahan\u2019s<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI always sort of wished I was in an offense like that. Seems like it\u2019s very quarterback-friendly,\u201d Brister said.<\/p>\n

A year later, Brister\u2019s former teammate in Philadelphia, linebacker Bill Romanowski, suggested to Shanahan that the Broncos check out Brister. Shanahan apparently liked what he saw, because Brister signed with Denver that offseason to become the team\u2019s third-string quarterback.<\/p>\n

The amount of verbiage in Shanahan\u2019s offense shocked Brister<\/a>, he said. Play calls in Shanahan\u2019s system can contain up to 15 words, former Broncos fullback Howard Griffith told The Post. Players were asked to turn in tests on Saturday about that week\u2019s call sheet or game plan, Griffith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe player can never get bored or content with the system because plays are constantly changing,\u201d Griffith told The Denver Post.<\/p>\n

Shanahan\u2019s system has evolved through his mentees. More than half of the NFL<\/a> runs an iteration of the Shanahan system \u2014 including Mike Shanahan\u2019s son, Kyle, former Broncos\u2019 ball boy Mike McDaniel and former offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak\u2019s son, Klint Kubiak. It\u2019s the NFL\u2019s dominant scheme, and it doesn\u2019t look like it\u2019ll fade into irrelevance anytime soon.<\/p>\n

\"MikeMike McDaniel, then the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, left, shakes hands with San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan after an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Dec. 4, 2022. (AP Photo\/Godofredo A. V\u00e1squez)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mike Shanahan offense is one that\u2019s been studied for many, many, many years and has brought success to many, many coaches,\u201d former Broncos wide receiver Ed McCaffrey said.<\/p>\n

Each system has different variations. Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams design their offense differently than Matt LaFleur and the Green Bay Packers. A team\u2019s offense depends a lot on the talent it has at various positions.<\/p>\n

But the principles of the Shanahan offense remain the same. Running the football at an efficient level is a requirement; motions and different deceptions are designed to trick defenders and skill position players are expected to be versatile in their assignments. And it tends to be successful, which is why NFL owners and general managers keep hiring coaches from the Shanahan tree, Broncos offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey said.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know as a defense what play it\u2019s going to be because you\u2019re putting all your personnel in every position across the board to run concepts,\u201d former Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer said to The Post. \u201cAnd I loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGlinchey, who played under Kyle Shanahan from 2018 to 2022, said the offense is designed around putting defenders in conflict. Horizontal routes, motions before the snap, and putting different players in different positions all make the offense difficult to defend, he said. McGlinchey pointed to when the 49ers revolutionized the fly motion to create a lead blocker for run plays, or when they motioned offensive tackle Trent Williams before the snap to pave the way for a running back.<\/p>\n

Kyle Shanahan is the \u201cmaster\u201d of all of that, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about creating leverage. Kyle understands as much as anyone the predicament to put on defenders,\u201d McGlinchey told The Post.<\/p>\n

The 49ers\u2019 run game is among the best in football, much like the great Mike Shanahan offenses in Denver. Several people told The Post that the Shanahans have a particular taste for how to run the football, setting up the play-action passing game and making it easier for whoever the signal-caller is.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many things he does well.\u201d Broncos coach Sean Payton said of Kyle Shanahan. \u201cHe, like his father, it started with an elite run-game plan. That hasn\u2019t changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCaffrey played for Mike Shanahan with the Broncos. He now watches his son, Christian McCaffrey, play running back for Kyle Shanahan. The four don\u2019t get together often, Ed McCaffrey told The Post, but he remains close with Mike and when the quartet does have conversations, there\u2019s a \u201cwealth of information there.\u201d<\/p>\n

If any Broncos fans turn on their television Sunday and feel like they\u2019re watching a repeat of the back-to-back Super Bowl teams of the 1990s in the 49ers\u2019 red and gold uniforms, it\u2019s because, in many ways, they are.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a ton of these offenses in the league because of Mike,\u201d Brister said.<\/p>\n

Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bubby Brister sat out the 1996 NFL season after a decade-long career as a longtime backup quarterback for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[7,2858,14289,301,2863,187,3943,100163,3726,76418,86228,100338,6322,165,72720,29260,6323,6324,6,9,302,162,8131,66,9919,3725],"class_list":["post-850048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denver-nuggets","tag-basketball","tag-broncos","tag-christian-mccaffrey","tag-denver","tag-denver-broncos","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-denvernuggets","tag-ed-mccaffrey","tag-football","tag-gary-kubiak","tag-jake-plummer","tag-klint-kubiak","tag-kyle-shanahan","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mike-mcdaniel","tag-mike-mcglinchey","tag-mike-shanahan","tag-more-broncos-news","tag-nba","tag-nfl","tag-nuggets","tag-san-francisco","tag-sean-payton","tag-sports","tag-the-denver-post","tag-twitter"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117377780202004327","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}