NFL coaching profile: What Detroit Lions are getting in David Shaw
An in-depth look at David Shaw’s coaching history, success, failures, and what it means for the Detroit Lions.
Our 2025
Detroit Lions new coaching profile series continues with new pass game coordinator David Shaw. While he may not have the biggest role on the team, he has one of the most impressive resumes, having spent 12 years as Stanford’s head coach.
And as you may expect from a person who was a Power 5 head coach for a dozen years, there is a ton of public information on him. So let’s get to know Shaw a little better with an extensive profile of the veteran coach.
Resume:
Playing career:
1991-94 — Stanford — WR
Shaw’s playing career isn’t anything particularly notable. However, Stanford had two iconic NFL coaches in the making leading the team during Shaw’s time there: Dennis Green (1991) and Bill Walsh (1992-94).
The other thing notable about his game was that as a receiver his best trait was... as a blocker, something we know the Lions value.
Here’s how he described his playing career at Stanford. Seem like a fit?
“I was also one of those receivers that wasn’t the fastest guy, but I was a good blocker. So I was being put in the game to help the running game. I was being put in to crack linebackers and do all of that. It was just a mentality thing that we were going to be a complete offense.”
Coaching start:
1995 — Western Washington — OLB coach
1996 — Western Washington - TE coach
It would be silly to give Shaw the majority of the credit, but it’s certainly worth noting that Western Washington’s best two records in program history remain the 1995 (9-1) and 1996 (11-2) seasons. (Their football program was dissolved in 2009).
Jon Gruden era:
1997 —
Philadelphia Eagles — Quality control coach
1998-2000 — Oakland Raiders — Quality control coach
2001 — Oakland Raiders — QB coach
In between seasons at Western Washington, Shaw interned with the Eagles for a summer. Apparently,
“his ability to integrate technology into preparation” impressed then-Eagles offensive coordinator Jon Gruden. So Gruden recruited him to a full-time position in Philly the next year.
Shaw followed Gruden to the Oakland Raiders in 1998—where Gruden also hired Shaw’s father (Willie Shaw) as the team’s defensive coordinator.
During this time, Shaw also overlapped with new Lions offensive coordinator John Morton, who served as the Raiders wide receiver coach before sharing the title of quality control coach with Shaw in 2000.
It’s worth noting that during this time Shaw was working closely with veteran quarterback Rich Gannon. Prior to his time with the Raiders, Gannon had a relatively unremarkable 11 seasons split between Minnesota, Kansas City, and Washington. In his six seasons (1999-2004) with the Raiders, Gannon made four Pro Bowls, was first-team All-Pro twice, and earned the league’s MVP in 2002 (the year after Shaw left).
Promotion:
2002-04 —
Baltimore Ravens — QB coach + WR coach
2005 — Baltimore Ravens — WR coach
Under Ravens coach Brian Billick, Shaw’s coaching career hit its first snag. The Ravens' offense struggled during this time—ranking eighth in 2003, but 20th or lower in each of the other three years. Ravens 2003 first-round pick, quarterback Kyle Boller, never fully developed under Shaw. Boller’s accuracy issues remained a problem, and Boller was out as the team’s starting quarterback by Year 4.
The receiver group wasn’t much better, although Shaw’s cupboard was pretty bare. He did help Travis Taylor (2000 first-round pick) enjoy his best career season (869 yards) in 2002, but it was downhill from there. Most of Baltimore’s success on offense came from bruising back Jamal Lewis, not the passing game.
After being let go from the Ravens after the 2005 season, Shaw considered taking a year off, but his good friend John Morton gave him a call and let him know that he was leaving the University of San Diego to join the
New Orleans Saints—creating an opening for the...
Jim Harbaugh era:
2006 — University of San Diego — Pass game coordinator + WR coach
2007-09 — Stanford — Offensive coordinator + WR coach
2010 — Stanford — Offensive coordinator + RB coach
Shaw literally took the exact job that Morton had at USD, and parlayed it into a four-year career alongside Jim Harbaugh at Stanford. Under Shaw as OC, Stanford went from one of the worst offenses in football to one of the best:
2007: 19.6 points per game (107th)
2008: 26.2 PPG (55th)
2009: 35.5 PPG (12th)
2010: 40.3 PPG (9th)
Of course, working with a quarterback named Andrew Luck for both 2009-10 helped a bit, as did Toby Gerhart’s nation-leading 1,871 rushing yards and 28 touchdowns in 2009.
When Harbaugh left for the NFL in 2011, Shaw was one of the leading candidates to take his place, and he landed the job.
Head coaching career:
2011-22 — Stanford — Head coach
Shaw remains the winningest coach in Stanford history, closing out his tenure with a 96-54 record (.640 win percentage is third among Stanford coaches with at least 20 games coached).
While Harbaugh elevated the program—taking a team that finished 1-11 prior to his arrival to a 12-1 team when he left—Shaw accomplished many things Harbaugh never did: for one—he appeared in three
Rose Bowls and won two of them. Harbaugh never won a Pac-12 title. Shaw won three. Beyond that, Shaw was also named Pac-12 coach of the year four times.
Harbaugh certainly deserves credit for some of Shaw’s early success, but he maintained a level of extremely high play well after Harbaugh’s players were out of the program. From 2011 to 2018, Stanford never finished with a worse record than 8-5. Over those eight years, Stanford lost three or fewer games in five seasons. The 2015 season may have been Shaw’s peak, with the Cardinals finishing 12-2, culminating in a 45-16 blowout of Iowa in the Rose Bowl. That year, Stanford finished as the No. 3 team in the country, per the AP polls.
As for the offense, Shaw’s first year was Luck’s final year—and nearly a Heisman Trophy-winning season (he finished second behind Robert Griffin III). The pass offense struggled a bit for the next few years under quarterback Kevin Hogan, but their rushing attack started to take over. Stepfan Taylor rushed for 1,530 yards in 2012, while Tyler Gaffney rushed for 1,709 yards and a nation-leading 21 touchdowns in 2013. And then, a couple years later, Christian McCaffrey took over completely. In 2015, McCaffrey hit 2,019 rushing yards and finished second in Heisman voting behind Derrick Henry. He led the nation again in 2016, with 1,603 yards.
Bryce Love took the mantle the next year, rushing for a whopping 2,118 yards and—again—gave the Cardinals a runner-up in the Heisman race (Baker Mayfield won).
All the while, the passing game was never as electric as Luck’s few years, but it worked well enough to complement the rushing attack.
But soon, the well dried up, and Stanford’s program took a significant nosedive in 2019. They dropped to 4-8 that year, and would never win more than five games the rest of the way. Shaw went 14-28 in his final four years.
So what the heck happened?
The Athletic has a really good piece here in Shaw’s shocking and surprising downfall, but the CliffsNotes version is complicated. Certainly, recruiting at a high-academic school like Stanford became even more difficult when the transfer portal system launched in 2018, and the implementation of the name, image, and liking policy (NIL) in 2021 was another tough barrier. COVID in 2020 cut short Shaw’s only successful season in this era (4-2). And injuries ravished the roster, particularly their running game, with offensive lineman and running back depth charts devastated early and often. But Shaw certainly bears his own blame for the downfall, as some believed the program had gone a little soft.
In the end, Shaw stepped down on his own, resigning in 2022, and simply noted,
“It’s time.”
Of note, 42 Stanford players under Shaw ended up being drafted into the NFL, including the following first-rounders:
- QB Andrew Luck
- G David DeCastro
- OT Andrus Peat
- G Joshua Garnett
- DE Solomon Thomas
- RB Christian McCaffrey
Reunion with Sean Payton:
2024 —
Denver Broncos — Senior Personnel Executive
After a year away from football, Shaw re-entered the NFL to reunite with someone he worked with in his very first year among the pros. You see, when Shaw was a quality control coach for the Eagles back in 1997, Payton was the team’s quarterback coach.
Both were huddled together in a back room working in small desks together.
“We were down in the bowls of Veterans Stadium,” Shaw told of his year there. “These old, dank, and small offices. You had to walk through my office to get to another office, When they hired Sean, they put another desk in there. When you walked through the door of our office, you had to turn sideways to fit between my desk and Sean’s desk. Sean was obviously very, very smart. Very, very bright. We were running an offense he hadn’t been in, so every day he was going through film, watching everything, making notes.”
This was Shaw’s first foray into the personnel side of the business, and it also reunited him with new Lions offensive coordinator John Morton, who was the Broncos’ pass game coordinator at the time.
Philosophy
Shaw spent most of his time in West Coast offenses that relied heavily on the run game. His style could definitely be described as old-school, hard-nosed football, which fits in nicely with what the Lions currently thrive at on offense.
His coaching is certainly influenced by his predecessors. So here’s what he’s said about those influences throughout the years.
Bill Walsh
Jon Gruden:
Brian Billick:
Jim Harbaugh
Prior to taking Harbaugh’s job as Stanford's head coach, he spent five seasons with him
in a time he called a “really good roller coaster.” As for what he took from the iconic coach:
“The biggest thing I take from Jim is making sure you have a competitive environment everyday. We’re always competing every game against everybody. That’s that mentality that I appreciate that I took with me and made sure that stayed when Jim left.”
And I think it’s important to point out this one thing he said about himself. During his time as Stanford's head coach, he sometimes operated more as a manager than a football coach.
Here’s him in his own words from 2016:
”I don’t spend much of my time coaching. I’m now a big-time manager. There are a lot of times when I’ll have no time at all to talk football. I’ll actually have to go talk to the media, go talk to my boss, go talk to alumni. Spend time doing things off the football field.”
I will also note that
Shaw got a reputation at Stanford for being pretty conservative on fourth down.
What others have said about him
Former QB Rich Gannon (on Shaw getting the Stanford head coach job):
“I think the one guy who is really going to benefit is the quarterback. One thing David really does well is knowing what the quarterback needs.”
Former Stanford RB Christian McCaffrey:
“He’s someone who really exemplifies leadership being not spoken but demonstrated through actions,. He’s not going to yell at you, get in your face and scream at you, all that stuff.”
Sean Payton:
“Extremely smart, he’s a close friend and a good addition for us.”
(Note: Shaw was Sherman’s positional coach, as Sherman started out as a WR at Stanford before moving to corner)
Former Stanford DE Thomas Booker:
“He’s willing to listen to you and take things from you, and then impart whatever he feels. There’s sometimes situations where the coach is always looked at as the superior, and the conversations are had from that dynamic. I don’t think that’s the case with Coach Shaw.”
Fun facts:
An in-depth look at David Shaw’s coaching history, success, failures, and what it means for the Detroit Lions.
www.prideofdetroit.com
