Brian Griese’s new boss, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, recently called him the “smartest football player I’ve ever been around.”
So, what the heck was going through Griese’s mind to enter the NFL coaching ranks, doing so this year as the 49ers’ quarterbacks coach?
“I’m just coming here to see if I can be a good football coach,” Griese said Wednesday in his introduction to the 49ers’ press corps. “I have a lot of good experiences, a lot of relationships that I’ve built up over time, and a lot of understanding of the game and how to play it from a quarterback’s position.”
The 49ers’ new quarterback does not have a lot of experience.
Trey Lance has not been a full-time starter since 2019, his only collegiate season as such for North Dakota State. He went 1-1 last season as Jimmy Garoppolo’s rookie backup, with the win coming in the home finale and playoff push.
Lance’s ascent to the starting role in place of Garoppolo is not what Griese said attracted him to the 49ers.
Griese, 47, went so far as to say: “It had nothing to do with Trey.” Rather, he wanted to recapture the thrill of victory and agony of defeat that comes with being on a team.
His old team, ESPN, replaced him in the “Monday Night Football” booth with Fox’s long-time tandem of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.
“They got a bigger fish,” Griese acknowledged. “I understand the dynamics of that and I always knew that possibility and likelihood was out there.
“I got to do it at the highest level for two years (on “MNF”) and I loved every minute of it.”
“I don’t have an agenda,” Griese said this week. “I’m not trying to get to the next coaching job.”
Griese’s first coaching job comes after 13 years as an ESPN analyst, after 11 years as a NFL quarterback for four teams.
He won a Super Bowl as a rookie third-stringer behind John Elway and Gary Kubiak on the 1998 Denver Broncos. They were coached by Mike Shanahan, and Griese spent five seasons in Denver, where he got to know a teenage ballboy named Kyle Shanahan.
“He was the smartest football player I’ve been around, the way that he prepares, how organized he was, as detailed as a guy I’ve ever been around,” Kyle Shanahan said at the NFL owners’ meetings in March, according to The Athletic’s Matt Barrows. “And I thought he was a guy who could bring something different to the quarterback position.”
Griese made the Pro Bowl in 2000 and, three years later, joined the Miami Dolphins, where his dad, Bob Griese, made his Pro Football Hall of Fame mark (1967-80). The younger Griese bounced to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2004-05, 2008) and the Chicago Bears (2006-07), finishing 45-38 all-time as a starter.
Now, the 1998 third-round pick out of Michigan is charged with grooming Lance, last year’s No. 3 overall draft pick.
“He is an outstanding young man in so many ways,” Griese said. “I’m excited to continue to get to know him, both on and off the field. I’m excited that he comes to work every day and he’s humble and wants to get better.
“I view it the same way. I come with humility and we’re going to get better together,” Griese added. “We check the ego at the door. He does that every day he comes to work, and that gives him a chance to be successful. Same with (backups) Nate Sudfeld and Brock Purdy.”
Griese had yet to hear from Garoppolo since taking the job in March, a surprise hire by Shanahan after Rich Scangarello left to coach at the University of Kentucky. Scangarello was the 49ers’ QB coach from 2017-18, and he returned last year. Shane Day served in that role in 2019-20.
“It’s unlike anything I’ve ever done before,” Griese said. “I’m not going to compare it to anything. But it feels natural. You’d have to ask Trey and Nate and Brock if it feels natural to them.
“I told Kyle and the entire offensive staff when I came out to meet them for the first time: ‘Listen, I know what I know, and I know what I don’t know.’ They appreciated that I was coming here with no agendas.”
Actually, atop his agenda should be getting Lance dialed in for Sept. 11 season opener in Chicago. It is not a one-man job to coach up the quarterbacks. Griese will collaborate with Shanahan, pass-game coordinator Bobby Slowik and assistant QB coach Klay Kubiak. (Klay’s father, Gary, is who Griese considers his first mentor in the NFL.)
Shanahan said Griese and Slowik crammed for five weeks together before the players’ offseason program began April 19. “They really dive into the detail of every little aspect of it,” Shanahan said.
Griese already has a plan for attacking the stress Lance will experience in his job’s description. On that note, let’s have the new coach share:
“There’s a couple of things to help manage stress and building coping skills: one is perspective. One of the first meetings we had as a quarterbacks group is why are we all here, why do we put ourselves through this,why do this job?
“Is it because you were ordained or predestined to be the starting quarterback or third overall pick, and now you’re here because everybody tells you this is what you’re supposed to do? Are you here for the money, or are you here for the glory and the fame? Or are we here to be part of something bigger than yourself and to play for your team and to compete and to win and to be in the arena? Are you here for the relationships? Are you here to make your family proud? Things like that give perspective so it’s not so granular, you’re 3-5 and everyone tells you how bad you are, you have to have a broader lens.
“The other is those relationships. Who are you playing for? When times get tough, do you have a depth of a relationship with the people in that locker room and the coaching staff and the organization to pull from? That helps manage stress and high-anxiety situations.”
Good thing, because not many jobs come with as much stress as the one Lance is starting.
