NFL Head Coaching Rumors: Kyle Shanahan Expected to Draw Significant Interest
By Josh Hill
It’s not even lunchtime on the west coast and 15 percent of the NFL has fired their head coaches. The Browns, Chiefs, Eagles, Bills and Bears are all coach-less at the moment and there’s a pretty good chance that the only reason Ken Whisenhunt and Norv Turner haven’t been canned is because they’re operating on pacific time.
When all is said and done on Black Friday, a total of seven coaches could be fired which accounts for over 20 percent of the league. The top two coaching candidates on the market right now (not including the recently fired Andy Reid, who deserves a job anywhere he wants) are Jon Gruden and Chip Kelly. Beyond those two names, it’s all about coordinators.
Washington Redskins coach Kyle Shanahan is a coordinator and he’s one that will get significant attention when it comes to teams trying to fill their head coaching voids.
One thing that could entice teams is the prospect of hiring Kyle Shanahan with the idea of adding Kirk Cousins in a package deal. In fact, NFL Network analyst and general manager candidate Mike Lombardi wrote about how teams may be enticed by that very package — which is code for he’s enticed by it and may try to make that happen should he be hired somewhere as a GM.
Shanahan has benefited greatly from the success of Robert Griffin III, and he boosted his worth by making Kirk Cousins look like a genius and vice versa. He wouldn’t be the first coordinator to get a head coaching job thanks to the play of a player. Mike McCoy is rumored to be a candidate for many head coaching gigs and that has everything to do with somehow making Tim Tebow work as well as riding the back of Peyton Manning (and vice versa).
There’s no guarantee that he’ll work as a head coach, just look at coordinator turned head coach turned coordinator Josh McDaniels, who’s of a list of many names that haven’t panned out –at least initially– as a head coach. But he’s got a lot going for him, from his success with RGIII and Cousins, as well as his heritage.
As many as eight head coaching vacancies could be made available this offseason and it’s very likely that Shanahan will be filling one of those positions after the season he’s had in 2012.
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