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DALLAS — Troy Aikman called the San Francisco 49ers a model franchise Thursday and said that if he were ever in a position to hire a head coach, his first call would go to San Francisco to ask what it would take to get 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan.
Aikman, who won three Super Bowls as the Dallas Cowboys quarterback, made the comments during his Thursday appearance on The Musers on SportsRadio 96.7 FM/1310 The Ticket. The Dallas Morning News published a lightly edited transcript of the interview. The 7-1 49ers visit Dallas on Sunday.
San Francisco enters Sunday at 7-1 and has won its past four meetings with Dallas. Aikman’s admiration extends to how the organization builds its roster and the style it asks players to follow.
“I do love the 49ers,” Aikman said. “I’ve liked them a long time. Love everything about the organization, the way they’re put together, the way they play. They’re an old-school team. We’ve talked about that in years past.”
Troy Aikman Traces Kyle Shanahan’s Offense To Mike Shanahan And Bill Walsh
Aikman said he is certain Shanahan has known his entire life that he would go into coaching. He noted that Shanahan played wide receiver at the University of Texas alongside quarterback Chris Simms, and Shanahan is the son of longtime Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan.
“A lot of what he does offensively really does go back to what Mike Shanahan was doing with the Denver Broncos,” Aikman said. “And in talking with Mike, a lot of what he learned and took with him when he became the head coach at Denver, he learned when he was with the San Francisco 49ers as the offensive coordinator, and that was when we were playing those 49ers in the championship games.”
Mike Shanahan was San Francisco’s offensive coordinator from 1992 to 1994, the three seasons Dallas and San Francisco met in the NFC Championship Game. Aikman said the 49ers required offensive coaches who came into the organization to learn Bill Walsh’s system.
“They had one way of doing things, Mike did,” Aikman said, “and then when he went to San Francisco, the thing that the organization did offensively was they believed so much in Bill Walsh’s system that offensive coaches would come in, and they had to learn the Bill Walsh offense, the West Coast offense. Bill, he taped and recorded every installation that he had done as the head coach of the 49ers, which was really a nice thing for these coaches that would come in because they would sit and watch these videos as though they were the player watching the great Bill Walsh do installations and why they ran the concepts that they ran.”
Mike Shanahan coached Denver from 1995 to 2008. The Broncos won back-to-back Super Bowls after the 1997 and 1998 seasons with John Elway at quarterback.
“So I talked to Mike about this years ago, and he learned a lot about the West Coast offense,” Aikman said. “He took a big part of that back to Denver when he won the two Super Bowls with [John] Elway, and then continued to do the things that he believed in within the run game. Kyle’s learned all of those things, and a lot of the concepts that they do, at least within the run game, have really been an extension of what his dad was doing there with the Broncos.”
Aikman Calls San Francisco 49ers A Model Franchise, Names Shanahan As Hypothetical First Call
Shanahan, hired in 2017, is in his 10th season as San Francisco’s head coach. Aikman said each season of Shanahan’s offense has looked a little different depending on the personnel and the injuries, and that the 49ers have kept winning through them.
“And yet, when you watch Kyle over the years, he is so good offensively in coming up with ways to attack a defense,” Aikman said. “And each year, it’s kind of looked a little bit differently as to how he’s utilized the personnel that he has when they’ve had injuries. He’s found ways to overcome it, and Lord knows they’ve had a ton of injuries there, which is why it’s been impressive that they’ve been able to continue to win.”
Aikman said the bigger thing that impresses him, beyond scheme, is how San Francisco plays on both sides of the ball.
“But the biggest thing that impresses me beyond scheme, and he’s outstanding, is their play style,” Aikman said, “because it doesn’t matter what year since he’s been the head coach, San Francisco, you put on the film offensively and defensively and there is an urgency and a physical style that you just don’t see around the league and especially defensively. A big reason for that is one, it’s demanded, and then two, you’ve got guys like Fred Warner and Nick Bosa, and I could go really pretty much to that entire roster.”
“And there’s an expectation that this is the way that you’re going to play, and it’s the way I believe you have to play to win and to win consistently,” Aikman said. “And it’s a big reason I think as to why they’ve done it. They’re very well-coached. They’re disciplined. They’re physical. Their best players are their tone-setters that demand everybody fall in line. They’re George Kittle on the offensive side of the ball, Christian McCaffrey, now [Brock] Purdy.”
“They hold everyone to a standard that’s very unusual, and they police that locker room unlike any group of players that I’ve ever seen as well,” Aikman said. “So to me, it really is a model franchise.”
Aikman said the coaching questions he has received concern what he would do if he moved into a front office. His answer about Shanahan described whom he would pursue in that hypothetical role.
“I’ve been asked a lot of questions here over the last several weeks about any aspirations that I may have of going in a front office and all of that, or who would you hire as your head coach?” Aikman said. “If I was in a position to hire someone as a head coach, the first call I’d make is to the 49ers and say, ‘How much is it going to take to get Kyle Shanahan?’ Because I think he’s that good and yes, I’ve always believed this, but coaching matters and it has an impact on an organization and we’ve seen that in San Francisco.”
Shanahan and the 49ers face the Cowboys at 3:25 p.m. CT Sunday at AT&T Stadium on FOX.
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