Kyle Shanahan was groomed his whole life to become a football coach, always dreams of calling plays for an offense. The first real step in the NFL was thanks to current Raiders head coach Jon Gruden, when Shanahan was just 24 years old.
Gruden, then the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, hired Shanahan as an offensive quality control coach going into the 2004 season. Going into the job, he was well-versed in his father Mike' offense, but Gruden's playbook was monstrous compared to everybody else. While Mike Shanahan mastered a system, Gruden has grasp of every football play known to mankind.
"I had to draw all his plays, and Jon had more plays than anybody in football," Shanahan said to NBC Sports' Chris Simms on the latest episode of "Chris Simms Unbuttoned." "So I actually got to draw and have experience with every play that was being run in the NFL."
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Shanahan had his first big job in the NFL just two years later when he became the Houston Texans' receivers coach. There, head coach Gary Kubiak ran Mike Shanahan's offense nearly play-for-play. And Kyle couldn't have been more bored.
Gruden gave him a challenge every day. He already knew his father's system. The now 49ers head coach wanted more than what he already knew.
"I got everything from Jon, which was great for my mind at the time because it just put a lot of stuff into my head that I needed to learn," Shanahan said.
San Francisco 49ers
[RELATED: How Shanahan eventually got past 49ers' Super Bowl loss]
Fast forward to 2020 and Shanahan and Gruden both are considered to have two of the most complex playbooks in the NFL. Shanahan told Simms that "Jon Gruden was just offense on steroids."
Now, that's exactly what many teams around the NFL say about Shanahan.
[49ERS INSIDER PODCAST: Listen to the latest episode]