Former Stanford coach David Shaw is returning to the NFL.
The Denver Broncos announced Thursday that Shaw, 51, will become the team’s senior personnel director, his first NFL role in nearly two decades after leaving the team after the 2022 season.
Shaw worked with Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton when he was coach of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1997. Payton was the team’s quarterbacks coach that season and Shaw was the quality control coach.
After serving as the Ravens’ wide receivers coach in 2005, Shaw made the transition to the collegiate side, joining Jim Harbaugh’s staff in San Diego in 2006. After one season at USD, Shaw moved with Harbaugh to Stanford and served as the Cardinal’s offensive coordinator for four seasons.
Shaw took over as head coach at Stanford after Harbaugh left for the San Francisco 49ers and quickly continued the success that Stanford had had under Harbaugh, going 34-7 in Shaw’s first three seasons with the team, helped by Andrew Luck being the No. 1 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft.
Stanford won every year of Shaw’s first eight years at the school, and that success led to him being a coach whose name was frequently mentioned as a potential NFL head coaching candidate. However, Shaw never left Stanford for the NFL, and the team’s success declined rapidly at the end of his tenure.
Stanford was a disaster in Shaw’s final four seasons with the team. The Cardinal went 4-8 in 2019 and 4-2 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season before going 3-9 in both 2021 and 2022. Shaw’s lack of success in his final two seasons with the team led to his resignation shortly after the 2022 season ended with a loss to BYU.
