The Athletic has announced The Playcallers, a new podcast series hosted by NFL reporter Jourdan Rodrigue. The series delves into the world of the NFL’s youngest coaching family, the Kyle Shanahan/Sean McVay tree, and explores the evolution of the popular offensive system associated with these coaches.
The five-episode documentary-style series will be released in its entirety on Monday, July 10, on The Athletic Football Show podcast feed, and can be found on various podcast platforms.
The “Kyle Shanahan/Sean McVay” system has become widespread in the NFL, with over a third of teams adopting variations of this offense. The series highlights the personal and professional impact of this offensive system on coaches such as Shanahan, McVay, Matt LaFleur, and Mike McDaniel, and sheds light on their relentless pursuit of play-calling perfection.
Featuring exclusive interviews with Shanahan, McVay, LaFleur, McDaniel, as well as head coaches, assistant coaches, former players, and analysts from across the league, “The Playcallers” offers unprecedented insights into the minds of these coaches and their perspectives on football and each other. The series also explores the way football evolves and changes, and the clashes of ideas and personalities that shape the sport.
“My hope is that people will, over the course of this series, consider the sport and the people within it — coaches, players, analysts — in ways they haven’t before,” said Rodrigue. “There is something both artful and brutal about this game so many of us love. What it requires, what it demands of its coaches and its players, and the extraordinary moments it can create walk hand-in-hand through its timeline. Over the last year while working on this series, I have been fortunate to talk football with some of the brightest young coaches in the game, and always I have returned to the question: How … and why … do people innovate in a sport built by conflict, that wants to move in patterns and cycles?”
