The winning culture Mike Shanahan created in Denver now the core of the 49ers

Shanahan, McCaffrey, Kubiak, Lynch, Griese, and even Bobby Turner. All names any die hard Bronco’s fan would know well. While Mike Shanahan and Gary Kubiak themselves are not scripting the first fifteen plays of this Sunday’s Super Bowl their kids sure are.

Kyle Shanahan has taken his dad’s west coast system which is the only system to bring Super Bowl Championships to Denver and turned it into a perennial powerhouse set to take on Kansas City this Sunday.

Kyle Shanahan is not the only former Shanahan influenced coach on the San Francisco staff. Shanahan has assembled many former Broncos and coaching legends kid’s including Clint Kubiak, who has also followed in his dad’s footsteps Gary, who was a long-time backup quarterback in Denver and brought Denver their third Super Bowl Championship when Payton Manning and Denver’s “No Fly Zone” Defense shut down Carolina. Clint Kubiak is set to become the New Orleans Saints Offensive Quarterback after the Super Bowl.

While all the former Broncos ties now residing in San Francisco give Broncos fans a strong rooting interest in this weekend to take down the longtime rival Chiefs, one can only start to wonder what happened in Denver to not only let Mike Shanahan leave, but also let their identity leave with it?

The firing of Mike Shanahan was one of the toughest moments for the late great Pat Bowlen, but what Bowlen didn’t know was the dismissal of Shanahan would start a pattern where the Broncos would lose their identity and start almost a decade of losing.

First after Shanahan it was Josh McDaniels and the Patriot way who came to Denver. Bowlen had just witnessed Tom Brady and the whiz kid Josh take the NFL by storm. Bowlen believed taking Denver in the direction of the Patriots would eventually get the team over the hump of perennial 8-8 seasons, which appeared at first to be the right decision, but that feeling quickly changed.

McDaniels got off to a hot 6-0 start, but then the wheels came off quickly and the culture Shanahan built was gone. McDaniels tried to run a tight Patriot way culture which was not well received in Denver by players and fans and quickly turned into a disaster. The culture got so bad that Elway turned to John Fox to stabilize the Broncos and restore the team’s reputation after an embarrassing spying incident in London and 4-12 finish and the team moved on from the failed McDaniels experience.

Fox was a success in Denver, primarily due to Payton Manning coming to the Mile High City. Payton was allowed to run his offense which in 2013 turned out to be one of the best of all time setting multiple records and a Super Bowl berth, but after a dismantling by the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl 48, Elway returned Denver back to its roots with the hiring of Gary Kubiak.

Kubiak brought the Broncos back to Shanahan way and Denver got back to themselves when they won Super Bowl 50. We saw a strong defense but a ball-controlled offense under Manning which turned out to be effective including when Osweiler stepped in, but after Kubiak stepped down due to health reasons once again Denver was lost.

Rather than Elway hire some of the Shanahan tree coaching candidates, Elway and Ellis stayed clear and went in different directions and Denver has not been able to establish an identity since. Sean McVay was available but was passed up when Denver didn’t jump and McVay has built the Rams into a Super Bowl candidate.

Elway then hired Vance Joseph over Kyle Shanahan, who didn’t work out. Vic Fangio was hired with still no Shanahan coaching tree candidates and the team didn’t talk to Mike McDaniel.

The Broncos west coast offense is all over the league, but now new Owner Greg Penner, has turned the keys over to Sean Payton who this offseason has been reassembling many of his New Orleans Saints coaching staff.

It is yet to be determined how Sean Payton will do in Denver, but if he does succeed it will be Denver adopting more the Bill Parcells philosophy versus Shanahan’s. Payton will attempt to change the culture in Denver back to a Super Bowl winning culture as what was seen in New Orleans, which he has a track record of being successful, but if history tells us anything, and what we are witnessing with potentially the Russell Wilson fallout he is not off to a good start it is a very good chance this strategy will fail and if it does Denver needs to go back to its roots.

Brian Griese be available?