Welcome to Washington, Mike Shanahan. We’ve been waiting for you.
Someone showed up here two years ago claiming to be Mike Shanahan, but that couldn’t have been you.
That guy gave away draft picks for a veteran quarterback who couldn’t play anymore and then benched him in favor of a quarterback who turned the ball over so many times the NFL considered renaming the statistic “Grossman.”
That guy ran an offense that averaged about 18 points a game for two seasons.
That guy “staked his reputation” on two quarterbacks last year who weren’t even active for Week 1 this season.
That guy couldn’t have been Mike Shanahan — not the one whose high-powered Denver offenses won two Super Bowls. Not the one who Hall of Famers swore was one of the greatest offensive minds of his time.
Now Sunday in New Orleans, that surely was Mike Shanahan — the offensive genius who guided rookie quarterback sensation Robert Griffin III through a brilliant game plan and paved the way for a stunning 40-32 upset of the New Orleans Saints.
Before the Super Bowl this year, I sat with Steve Young, whom Shan?ahan coached in San Francisco. I asked him where I could find the coach Young proclaimed a quarterback guru because we hadn’t seen him in Washington yet.
“Mike has been searching since John Elway for a quarterback that will protect him, that will allow him to call games the way he wants, and he has struggled to find that,” Young said on “The Sports Fix” on ESPN 980. “I can see that. I saw him in Dallas this year on the ‘Monday Night Football’ game. He’s so frustrated because he doesn’t have somebody that he can do what he wants to. … I think that he would crave the chance to be with somebody who would protect him as a play caller.”
RGIII is the opposite of a coach killer. He makes coaches look good. Ask Art Briles, whose Baylor team will be playing in a new $250 million stadium in two years.
And Shanahan does make quarterbacks look good. He got the best out of Jake Plummer and Brian Griese in Denver. He was on his way to doing the same with Jay Cutler before he got fired after the 2008 season. And you could make the case that as bad as it has been around here, Shanahan got the most out of Rex Grossman.
Everybody looked good Sunday. RGIII had a record rookie performance, completing 19 of 26 passes for 320 yards and two touchdowns — a quarterback rating of 139.9. The Shanahan offense put 40 points on the board.
“It’s kind of fun to do some things you haven’t done in a while,” Shan?ahan said during Monday’s news conference.
Sounds like Shanahan’s search may be at an end. Welcome home, Mike.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
