Polumbus: My experience playing for Kyle Shanahan

With the Denver Broncos head coaching position open, the name of a well-known local has been called upon to take the reins: Kyle Shanahan.

Kyle, the son of Broncos legend Mike Shanahan, grew up inside of NFL coaching offices.

I had the opportunity to play for Kyle in Washington and Atlanta, so I thought I would share my firsthand experience.

I signed with Mike my rookie year and watched the way he coached our team first hand. Our offensive coordinator, Jeremy Bates, certainly had plenty of authority (and for a few years was a hot name in the industry) but make no mistakes about it, Mike was very hands on with our offense.

During practice, Mike spent most of his time directly with the offense. He was a part of just about every period of practice with us. During the games, I am not sure who was doing all the play calling, but I do believe Mike was heavily involved in the game-day play calls.

When I got to Washington, I expected the offensive coordinator and head coach relationship to look very similar. It was not. Mike was hands off. He stood at midfield for most of the practice and walked back and forth between offense and defense more so than he did during my time in Denver.

It was clear to me from Day One that the offense was Kyle’s show. Mike was letting Kyle do his thing as much as possible without being over-involved.

To be completely honest, I wasn’t entirely sure what to think. I went to the same high school as Kyle, and we had many mutual relationships, but I didn’t really know if Kyle could truly coach football. Did he just have the job because of his dad?

Well, let me tell you, it took no more than a month for me to be blown away by Kyle’s football acumen. Our offense was different than it was in Denver. Not in terminology, that was all the same, but the running game and our landmarks were drastically different.

Kyle had evolved his own dad’s offense. He had taken it to the next level.

Think about that. Son, coaching for dad, was smart enough to convince a legend to evolve his running game.

Gone were the days of automatically cutting back every running play to the backside. Gone were the days of offensive lineman having to cut on every play on the backside. We were stretching the field from numbers to numbers on every play, and if the running back could keep it play side and bounce it, it was encouraged.

We didn’t throw the ball as often, but when we did our yards per catch ranked at the top of the NFL. Our rushing attack, year-in and year-out, was at the top of the league.

The offensive lineman would drool at the first 15 plays handed out on Saturday night meetings because everything was built off the run — including all the passes.

Kyle reinvented our offense entirely for Robert Griffin III. He and Mike had overhauled everything to suit the talents of our quarterback instead of forcing him to fit the mold of their previous offense.

His Atlanta Falcons have the No. 1 offense in the NFL. Atlanta head coach Dan Quinn is a defensive guy, and he hired Kyle to independently operate the offense without overbearing involvement. Kyle has certainly not disappointed.

Kyle is certainly not where he is simply because his last name is Shanahan. Sure, Mike got him started. Sure, Mike’s fingerprints all over his offense. However, believe me when I tell you that Kyle is personally responsible for taking this offense to the next level.

Kyle is the best candidate for the job. I hope the Broncos hire him, retain defensive coordinator Wade Phillips and the defensive staff, and the team embarks on a new era of dominating Shanahan football in Denver.