Mike Shanahan had a few opportunities to return to coaching. The perfect situation never seemed to present itself, though. He won two Super Bowl championships coaching the Denver Broncos after winning a championship as an offensive coordinator with the San Francisco 49ers.
All Shanahan wanted was another shot at being part of a championship-caliber team. So for him to return, it would have had to have been the perfect situation. That meant having an owner, general manager, and quarterback who were on the same page as him and working cohesively as a unit.
"If it doesn't happen, the chances of you winning a Super Bowl aren't very good," Shanahan told reporters in Denver on Saturday. "If that situation happened, I was going to take it. If not…"
It didn't happen.
Nothing worked out. That perfect opportunity never presented itself.
Shanahan doesn't regret not taking a job that did not fulfill his requirements. Now, he gets to be a father and grandfather. He gets to enjoy watching his son, Kyle Shanahan, coach the 49ers. That's why Mike Shanahan has been in Denver over the last few days. Kyle and his players have been taking part in joint practices with the Broncos leading up to Monday night's preseason matchup between the two teams.
Broncos head coach Vic Fangio even joked that the elder Shanahan is always welcome there — just not when they are playing the 49ers during the regular season. He wouldn't, after all, want any Broncos secrets falling into enemy hands.
Back to that perfect situation, Mike Shanahan feels his son might have fallen into it in San Francisco. He has ownership which supports him, has been patient despite not showing patience with previous coaches, and doesn't get in the way. He has a general manager in John Lynch who is in sync with how he wants to rebuild what was once among the worst rosters in the league.
He even has a quarterback. Maybe. Hopefully.
Jimmy Garoppolo has only started 10 games. He looked fantastic during a five-game stretch at the end of the 2017 season. There was room for improvement at the start of 2018, but who knows what might have happened had Garoppolo been able to keep playing a full 16 games. Instead, his season was ended during Week 3 due to a torn ACL.
If Garoppolo pans out like Kyle Shanahan and Lynch believe he will, then the 49ers coach indeed fell into the right situation.
"I think he's in a great situation," Mike Shanahan said. "Got a chance to get a guy like John Lynch to be the general manager, being around the support staff that I've had a chance to talk to beside Mr. (Jed) York, Paraag (Marathe). And then you get a chance to make decisions on who you want as your coaching staff, who you want as players, bring in the right improvement through free agency."
San Francisco should be better. Of course, the 49ers won just four games last season so anything more would be better. The aforementioned injury to the team's starting quarterback is a big reason for last year's mounting losses.
Garoppolo will be back this season. As will several other players coming off of injuries. The team upgraded its pass rush and added weapons around its quarterback. It should be better.
"All you want is the opportunity to have success," Mike Shanahan added, "and Kyle's been given that opportunity. I think people will see this team will get better."