BSN Exclusive: Kyle Shanahan sheds light on who the Broncos are getting in Rich Scangarello

MOBILE, Ala. — The internet is a beautiful place.

At the touch of a button, there’s nearly endless information about anything or anyone, especially one that’s been in the public light.

That is, except for the Denver Broncos’ new offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello, who has a whopping two sentences on his Wikipedia page. Heck, the now-NFL offensive coordinator doesn’t even have a picture on his Wikipedia page.

Denver’s new play caller is essentially Mr. Unknown.

But there’s one man that knows him better than anyone else — not just on the internet, but in the entire NFL.

BSN Denver got the insight on Denver’s new offensive coordinator from 49ers’ coach Kyle Shanahan on Tuesday.

“They got a helluva coach,” Scangarello’s former boss told BSN Denver, a ringing endorsement from a man that’s viewed as one of the league’s brightest young head coaches. “He’ll do a great job. It was tough for me to let him go because I know how much I put into him.”

After his first year in the NFL ranks with the Raiders in 2009, Scangarello spent his past three years in the NFL under Shanahan.

The first stint came in 2015 when Shanahan was the offensive coordinator in Atlanta. Scangarello left his swanky job as Northern Arizona’s offensive coordinator to become an entry-level offensive quality control coach in order to learn under Shanahan.

Scangarello impressed Shanahan so much, in fact, that when he received his first gig as a head coach, he hired the little-known Scangarello to take care of his most prized possessions.

While head-coach Shanahan called the offensive plays in San Francisco, Scangarello was tasked with shaping the quarterbacks.

Shanahan described Scangarello as “very, very important” in developing all four of the 49ers’ quarterbacks over the last two seasons.

“He’s very good at what he does,” Shanahan told BSN, praising Scangarello’s ability to develop signal callers. “He knows a lot about quarterback play.”

In his two-year stint as the 49ers’ quarterback coach, in 2017 and 2018, San Francisco was the only team in the league with at least three different quarterbacks to start at least six games. He had to do it with four different quarterbacks — Brian Hoyer, C.J. Beathard, Jimmy Garoppolo, and Nick Mullens.

Despite that, the 49ers had the 10th-most passing yards per game (265.1) in the league during that time.

After acquiring Jimmy Garoppolo from the Patriots mid-way through the 2017 season, Scangarello helped the new 49er get up to snuff in a hurry. In his five starts to wrap-up the 2017 season, Garoppolo threw for 308.4 yards per game on 67-percent completions with a 94 passer rating.

In 2018, Scangarello was once again faced with a difficult challenge when he had to get Mullens — a second-year undrafted player — ready to play.

Mullens immediately became a national storyline overnight, tossing three touchdowns to go along a 151.9 passer rating in his first start on Thursday Night Football thanks in part due to Scangarello’s teachings.

Additionally, Vic Fangio stated Scangarello “worked wonders” with all of the quarterbacks who started in San Francisco over that two-year stretch.

But Scangarello’s talents stretch beyond molding young quarterbacks into successful players, according to Shanahan.

“They’re getting a very good coordinator,” Shanahan said without a doubt. “He’s done it before at the college level. He knows the run game and the pass game. Rich is a very confident coach.”

The 46-year-old coach has been an offensive coordinator for eight seasons at the collegiate level. In his most recent stop at Wagner in 2016, Scangarello led the Seahawks to the second-best offense in terms of points, passing yards and turnovers in the Northeast Conference.

“He’ll go in there and do a very good job. They’re lucky to have him, and it was tough to lose him,” Shanahan said. “He’s been a good coordinator in college, and he’ll be a great one for the Broncos.”