The two coaches with the best record in the NFL this season have a 22-year experience gap.
Kyle Shanahan's 49ers are 10-1 in his third season as a head coach, while Bill Belichick's New England Patriots are 10-1 in his 25th. Belichick is 28 years Shanahan's senior and decidedly grumpier, but the two have quite a bit in common according to one man who has worked with both.
“I’ve never met a coach who reminds me of Bill Belichick as much as Kyle,” Scott Pioli told Peter King for his "Football Morning in America" column.
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SIGN UP HERE Pioli overlapped with Belichick for nearly a decade in New England, working in the Patriots' player personnel department from 2000 through 2008. He was the Atlanta Falcons' assistant general manager from 2014 until this May, and Shanahan was their offensive coordinator.
Their careers followed similar early arcs. Shanahan, like Belichick, had to wait a while until his first winning season. Belichick did not crack the .500 mark -- or win double-digit games -- until his fourth season with the Cleveland Browns, and Shanahan has done both in his third season with San Francisco.
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King wrote that Shanahan reminded him of another coach with a lengthy résumé: Mike Shanahan, the 49ers coach's father.
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"He’s not as polished as his dad, veteran coach Mike Shanahan, was," King wrote. "Then again, he’s 39. He’s got time. What he is, is tough and an excellent play-designer and play-caller. He won’t say it, but he’s the kind of a just-try-to-knock-this-chip-off-my-shoulder coach who players respect. And they respect Shanahan because they know he puts them in the best position to win."
The elder Shanahan and Belichick have eight Super Bowl wins between them as head coaches. With the inside track to the NFC's top seed, the 49ers have to like their chances of seeing their coach follow in Belichick and his father's footsteps.