Former Stanford coach David Shaw is now an assistant coach with the Detroit Lions.
Shaw was announced as the team’s passing game coordinator Tuesday as the franchise revealed its coaching staff for the 2025 season. It’s the first time Shaw has coached in the NFL since 2005 and it’s his first coaching job since he resigned immediately after the 2022 season.
Shaw had been the Cardinal’s head coach for 12 seasons and Stanford went 96-54 in his tenure. However, the Cardinal won just 14 games after going 9-4 in 2018 and didn’t post a winning record in any of the final three full seasons of his tenure. Stanford went 3-9 in both 2021 and 2022 after winning at least 10 games in five of Shaw’s first six seasons with the school.
After sitting out the 2023 season, Shaw returned to the NFL in a front office role in 2024 as a personnel executive for the Denver Broncos. He interviewed for the head coaching positions for both the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints over the offseason. The Bears hired former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson while the Saints hired Philadelphia Eagles’ offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
Shaw’s last job in the NFL was with the Baltimore Ravens where he served as the team’s wide receivers coach for three seasons and coached quarterbacks for two. After that stint with the Ravens, he worked for Jim Harbaugh at San Diego and came with Harbaugh to Stanford when the current Los Angeles Chargers coach was hired by the school.
Shaw is also one of two former college head coaches in prominent roles on Dan Campbell’s staff in Detroit. Former East Carolina head coach Scottie Montgomery is the team’s assistant head coach and wide receivers coach after serving as assistant head coach and running backs coach in 2024. John Morton has replaced Johnson as the team’s offensive coordinator while former NFL running back Tashard Choice is the team’s new running backs coach. Choice spent the last three seasons on Steve Sarkisian’s staff at Texas as the Longhorns’ running backs coach following three seasons as an assistant at Georgia Tech.
