In a surprising move, the 49ers have hired Brian Griese as their quarterbacks coach, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN. He will replace Rich Scangarello who left to become offensive coordinator at the University of Kentucky.
With Trey Lance set to step into the starting lineup for the first time in 2022 this move is particularly curious considering Griese has never been a coach at any level.
So, what qualifies him to be a position coach in the NFL?
His father Bob was a Hall of Fame quarterback, leading the Miami Dolphins to back-to-back Super Bowl titles in the early 1970s.
He knows the 49ers system. Griese played for Kyle Shanahan’s father Mike and sat behind John Elway during his rookie season with the Denver Broncos. He took over as the starter in 1999.
During his 11-year career, Griese played in 93 games for Denver, Miami, Tampa Bay, and Chicago. He threw 119 touchdowns and 99 interceptions.
Griese has worked as a broadcaster at ESPN since 2009, working as a color analyst on their college football package. and was the color commentator for Denver Broncos radio broadcasts from 2010 to 2011. In 2020 ESPN moved Griese into the Monday Night Football booth, so he’s been around the game.
Is this a good hire by Kyle Shanahan?
This can go either way. It’s not often that someone who has never coached at any level becomes a position coach in the NFL. The usual path starts as a quality control coach followed by working as assistant position coach. Griese is skipping the first two steps.
On the flip side, Griese will bring a fresh set of eyes to the 49ers staff. In his 13-years as a broadcaster, he has spent time in production meetings with coaches across the college ranks and NFL.
After investing three first-round picks in Trey Lance, Kyle Shanahan needs this to work.
I think Chris will be a good coach
Puzzling!
One of my biggest complaints about Jimmy Garoppolo, was that when he missed, he usually missed high…and when he connected over the middle, how many times did the receiver need to extend his body, or jump, to catch the pass….leaving his torso open, for a violent hit…receivers don’t like to be put in this predicament…that being said, a QB’s mechanics require modification to alleviate that problem…Jimmy missed high, plenty of times this past season, and in seasons past… how good a QB Coach was Scangarello, if this problem was persistent?
I mean even the best of the best Miss throws on a consistent basis it’s just part of football. Jimmy was also pretty dam good at putting it on guys on slants and digs which was his strength. You saw Deebo take a lot of hits but most people don’t really consider he’s 5’11 and has 31 inch arms.
If your complaint about Garoppolo was that he missed high you might soon be complaining about Lance.
Agreed…the point of my post wasn’t solely about Jimmy missing high..and granted, he did make the throws you noted..the point was about Scangarello..when I played football in HS, many moons ago, I played Center. And because of that, I spent the first hour or so of every practice working out with the starting QB, Backs and Receivers….I remember our Backfield coach stressing good mechanics with our QB…if Jimmy was missing high thru the season, either Scangarello and Kyle weren’t concerned or, if they were, and reminded Jimmy about his mechanics, it didn’t sink in….will the 9ers miss Scangarello? I don’t think they will….New QB, new QB coach..it’s all good
Kyle Shanahan has a history of assembling talented coaching staffs. The one place where he has seemed challenged was at QB coach. I already prefer Griese to Scangrello, but that, in my humble opinion, that isn’t a very high bar to clear. All that matters is that Trey Lance is ready to start and plays up to his considerable talent. Lets see it!
I’m more and more warming up to this…Even though he hasn’t done the grind of being a QA coach, having an 11 year career in the NFL is pretty impressive. He seems like a person that communicates really well and having the background in TV where he was a part of many production meetings with coaches sounds like we are adding yet more experience and perspective to the team.
Let’s Go!
I don’t care what it takes…the 49ers need to go get Megatron 2.0
The transition from the media world to high positions on sports teams hasn’t exactly been very successful in the majority of cases (unlike the other direction), so this doesn’t look very promising. Unless Brian Griese is the second coming of Steve Kerr, he’s probably going to go the way of Mike Mayock, Gruden II, and just maybe, someday, John Lynch.
If I were Machiavellian, I’d suspect Griese was hired to be a seat warmer in order to provide Trey Lance with a whole lot of quality time with John Beck this offseason, and then just before the summer, Griese leaves for some reason or other and Beck is hired as QB coach to replace him.
The least you can do is some research and note that both Griese and Lynn were with Kshan previously – not rocket science connecting the dots on what Kshan is doing.
Take the existing Offense and merge with what the Broncos did. – meaning more long passes
Brian Griese QB Denver Broncos (1998–2002) + Anthony Lynn RB Denver Broncos (1993, 1997–1999) = Trey Lance 49er QB (2022)
I have a tremendous amount of respect for Kyle’s ability to assemble a top notch coaching staff. He definitely deserves the benefit of the doubt on these things. It’s just very unclear what Griese brings to the table. I guess you can point to Griese’s playing experience but he hasn’t ever coached so his teaching capability is totally untested. From what I’ve seen Trey needs coaching on his throwing mechanics. I guess John Beck is supposed to deliver that in the offseason. So then what does Griese do? Reinforce the learning during the season? Is he supposed to help Trey manage the mental part of practice and game day? One thing is certain though, Kyle Shanahan doesn’t follow any traditional logic in making coaching hires. Seems like he runs one of those companies that just hires smart people they like and respect and then figure out how to use them.
On a different topic:
Much discussion on sports media about the severity of Calvin Ridley’s suspension for betting on NFL games, but I haven’t yet seen or heard anyone referencing the same penalties handed down in 1963 on Paul Hornung and Alex Karras for betting on games. At the time they were the best offensive and defensive players in the league. Hornung was MVP. It would be like suspending Aaron Rogers and Aaron Donald.
See also Rose, Pete
Does the NFL monitor referees for gambling as close as they monitor players? Maybe investigate that back judge that threw the flag on Cinci in the Superbowl. Pretty much a game deciding play that the Refs got wrong.
Another QB point. Everyone is talking about Lance’s hurt feelings. Give me a break, this is pro sports and only the mentally tough survive. I remember Terry Bradshaw going off on this. He started a game and was benched, then called back into the game, they lost and he was blamed for losing the game. I think he even had a concussion in there somewhere. Pro sports is tough and I am sure that Lance is able to rise above such.