WFT throwback clip of Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Matt LaFleur will destroy you

Only four teams are left standing in the NFC. By the end of this weekend, that number will shrink to two.

By all accounts, the Green Bay Packers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers, who proved over the second half of the year that they belong in this conversation, are the four best teams in the conference.

Sorry, Tom Brady, but we’re forced to exclude your team from this discussion.

After all, the Packers, Rams and 49ers all have something in common, and the Washington Football Team is right at the center of it.

How so? Well, a video and picture of Matt LaFleur, Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan on Washington’s sidelines from 2013 is going viral.

Try to watch this without punching the air.

This throwback clip of former Washington Football Team assistants will haunt your dreams.

Well, that was more painful than we thought it was going to be.

It’d be easy to forget since it was so long ago, but most fans remember all too well that these three head coaches were once offensive assistants under Mike Shanahan. His son, Kyle, was the offensive coordinator, while LaFleur was the quarterbacks coach and McVay was the tight end whisperer.

That’s a lot of football knowledge on one sideline, and it’s really not a surprise that they’ve since become three of the finer coaches in the NFL.

LaFleur’s in his third season as the Packers head coach. He’s won 13 games every year and owns a 39-10 overall record. He’s only 2-2 in the playoffs, but don’t let that control the narrative. LaFleur is a great HC and the manner in which he’s navigated the Aaron Rodgers saga is pretty damn impressive.

McVay, meanwhile, is in his fifth year coaching the Rams. He’s 55-26 overall with a 4-3 playoff record and a berth in four of five seasons. He also went to the Super Bowl in 2018, just his second year at the helm. The Rams lost that game, but there’s no shame in losing to Bill Belichick on a stage like that.

About that viral photo we mentioned earlier…

Finally, we get to Shanahan, who might just be the most innovative offensive mind in the league. The kicker? He only has a 39-42 record since taking over the 49ers in 2016. However, context matters and he didn’t assume a roster that was ready to win, which explains his 10-22 record in his first two years.

Like McVay, Shanahan has been to a Super Bowl and he’s now 3-1 in the playoffs after San Francisco’s Wild Card win over the Cowboys with a chance to improve that mark against his old pal LaFleur tonight at 8:15 p.m. EST.

At least one third (possibly two thirds) of that trio will be coaching in the NFC Championship Game, and odds are we’ll see one of them in the Super Bowl.

The purpose behind this article isn’t to highlight Washington “failing” to hire one of LaFleur, McVay or Shanahan as HC. It just wasn’t feasible after the 3-13 campaign in 2013 that saw Mike Shanahan and most of his staff fired.

You really think Shanahan was going to stay with the franchise that fired his father? Obviously not. When the Rams hired McVay in 2017, they made him the youngest coach in NFL history and Jay Gruden had just led Washington to back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 1996-997.

And LaFLeur had never been a coordinator up until that point in his career.

Again, we’re merely pointing out the irony that three of the best head coaches in the league today were all on the same staff in Washington early in their careers. This isn’t some dig at the organization for letting them go.

That’d be unfair, because it isn’t what happened.