Broncos hire former Stanford coach David Shaw to assist them with scouting and roster evaluation
Stanford head coach David Shaw walks on the field before an NCAA college football game against Washington State in Stanford, Calif., Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022. Shaw is returning to the NFL as a senior personnel executive with the Denver Broncos, Thursday, June 20, 2024. Credit: AP/Godofredo A. Vásquez
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Former Stanford football coach David Shaw is returning to the NFL as a senior personnel executive with the Denver Broncos.
Shaw, who coached the Cardinal from 2011-22, will help evaluate college and pro players and assist general manager George Paton in roster evaluation.
Before coaching at Stanford, where he won three Pac-12 titles, Shaw, 51, was an assistant coach for the Eagles, Raiders and Ravens, and he's been trying to get back into the NFL for a couple of years.
He interviewed for the Chargers' and Titans' head coaching vacancies last winter and also was a candidate for the Broncos job that went to Sean Payton in 2023.
Shaw and Paton kept in contact afterward and they recently started to create a role for Shaw in the personnel department that's similar to the one Gary Kubiak held after stepping down as Broncos head coach at the end of the 2016 season.
Kubiak, however, had an office at team headquarters while Shaw will work mostly from his home in the Bay Area with trips to training camp and a few games.
Shaw has several connections to the Broncos. He and Payton were young offensive assistants together in Philadelphia in 1997. Also, team owners Carrie Walton Penner and Greg Penner each have degrees from Stanford and limited shareholder Condoleezza Rice is the director of the Hoover Institute at Stanford.
Shaw is the second high-profile addition to the Broncos' personnel department this year, following the hiring of vice president of player personnel Cody Rager, a longtime scout in New Orleans while Payton was head coach of the Saints.
The Broncos, who have churned through 13 starting quarterbacks and a half-dozen head coaches since winning the Super Bowl in 2016, are trying to snap a streak of seven straight losing seasons and a playoff drought of eight years.
After going 8-9 in Payton's first season, they bid farewell to several high-profile veterans, including Justin Simmons, Russell Wilson and Josey Jewell, and they drafted quarterback Bo Nix in the first round.