San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, 43, just completed his sixth season as an NFL head coach.
In spite of his young age and relative inexperience in comparison to Super Bowl Champion veteran head coaches Andy Reid, Pete Carroll, Mike McCarthy, and Mike Tomlin, he is already creating an impressive coaching tree.
Shanahan has not even won a Super Bowl yet his coaching tree is multiplying quickly.
A coaching tree measures the number of coaches who leave a head coach’s staff and become a head coach elsewhere.
Shanahan had three coordinators promoted to head coaching positions, and here is how they rank in terms of most likely to win a Super Bowl.
The ranking is in ascending order.
3. Robert Saleh, HC New York Jets (2021-Present)
For four seasons (2017-2020) Robert Saleh was the 49ers’ defensive coordinator.
Since 2021, he has been the head coach of the New York Jets.
Saleh is a defensive mind, but he has been bogged down by a Jets quarterback mess.
The team drafted Zach Wilson in 2021, but he has been disappointing.
There were bursts of decent play by Mike White and Joe Flacco, but until the Jets get their quarterback situation straightened out once and for all, Saleh, who is 11-23 through two seasons, is going to be watching the playoffs and Super Bowl from home.
2. Mike McDaniel, HC Miami Dolphins (2022-Present)
Mike McDaniel served as the 49ers run game coordinator from 2017-2020 and the offensive coordinator in 2021.
McDaniel just finished his rookie season as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins.
Though McDaniel led them to a somewhat unexpected 9-8 record in his rookie season, this team’s quarterback situation is also a perilous one.
Tua Tagovailoa is a talented young quarterback who suffered several concussions in 2022; it is unclear how durable he will be for the Dolphins in the long run.
With that big question mark looming, the Dolphins will continue to be viewed as outsiders for the Super Bowl next season and beyond.
1. DeMeco Ryans, HC Houston Texans (2023-Present)
DeMeco Ryans is the newest coach of the Houston Texans.
He worked for the 49ers in various capacities since 2017 including as the defensive quality control coach, inside linebackers coach, and most recently as defensive coordinator for the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
Ryans joins a Texans team that is in dire need of a culture change to make it a winning organization.
He has the ringing endorsement of former Texan and future Hall of Famer J.J. Watt.
JJ Watt was excited about the Houston Texans HC hiring of DeMeco Ryan 👏 pic.twitter.com/LzqwZV1ZjO
— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) February 1, 2023
Ryans gains a bunch of draft picks to work with by virtue of the Texans’ trade of quarterback Deshaun Watson to the Cleveland Browns in 2022.
The slate is clean for Ryans, and the future is bright.
That’s why he is ranked as the most likely to win a Super Bowl among the top three of Kyle Shanahan’s coaching tree candidates.
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