Griese to return for second season as 49ers quarterbacks coach

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INDIANAPOLIS — After some anxious days following the season, the 49ers recently received some good news for their coaching staff.

Brian Griese will return for a second season as quarterbacks coach.

Griese joined the coaching staff a year ago after spending 13 seasons in the TV broadcast booth.

He brought a wealth of experience to his first coaching role after starting 83 games over 11 NFL seasons.

He signed a two-year contract to join coach Kyle Shanahan's staff but had to sort out with his family whether to remain in coaching. His family remained in Denver during the season. He has a daughter who will be entering her senior year and an eighth-grade son.

“As much as he loved it, it’s tough being away from them,” 49ers general manager John Lynch said Tuesday at the NFL Scouting Combine. “But they’re well set up in Denver. He had to go weigh all of that.

“He had us nervous because you can’t fight that. You can’t say, ‘Ah, no, that’s not a big deal.’ We understand that, so he went through that process.”

Lynch said he received positive reviews of Griese’s work from quarterbacks Trey Lance, Brock Purdy and Jimmy Garoppolo.

The results showed, too. The 49ers went from Lance to Garoppolo to Purdy thanks to injuries, and the play at the quarterback position remained at high levels as the 49ers rolled into the NFC Championship Game on a 12-game win streak.

Shanahan hired Griese late in the offseason after former quarterbacks coach Rich Scangarello left the staff to become offensive coordinator at the University of Kentucky. Scangarello was fired after one season.

Griese had no background in coaching, and he said the first thing he wanted to do was establish why every quarterback under his direction was driven toward playing football.

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Much of his coaching approach was to minimize stress and anxiety. After his long career, Griese believes that was an important area in which he could provide assistance to those under his direction.

“That was a big deal for us to get Brian Griese,” Lynch said. “He’s a really good football coach and really good resource for those guys.

“It’s nice to have a guy who’s been there. I can imagine it at a position like that, especially. It’s different. There are different pressures on these guys.”

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