The Houston Texans once had seven of the coaches from the NFC champion San Francisco 49ers right on their own coaching staff from 2006-08.
The most obvious is coach Kyle Shanahan, who served in a variety of capacities for the Texans under coach Gary Kubiak. In 2006, he was the receivers coach and later become quarterbacks coach in 2007. From 2008-09, Shanahan was the offensive coordinator until leaving for Washington to serve under his father, Mike Shanahan, in the same capacity.
The second coach on the Niners staff that used to be with Houston was run game coordinator Mike McDaniel. With the Texans from 2006-08, he was an offensive assistant. After leaving for the UFL for two seasons, McDaniel followed Shanahan to Washington.
The third coach is offensive line coach John Benton. Much like with San Francisco, Benton was the offensive line coach for the Texans from 2006-13 when Kubiak got fired with three games to go. When the organization cleaned house as part of the ushering in of the Bill O’Brien era, Benton went, too.
The fourth coach is defensive coordinator Robert Saleh. In 2005, Saleh joined the Texans as a defensive intern. From 2006-08, he was a defensive quality control coach, and later became an assistant linebackers coach from 2009-10. When the organization brought in defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, the latter brought in Reggie Herring as his linebackers coach, and out went Saleh to Seattle for three seasons for spending another three in Jacksonville and landing with the 49ers in 2017.
The fifth coach is outside linebackers coach Johnny Holland. From 2006-10, he was with the Texans as a linebackers coach. Herring came in and took his job specifically, and Holland spent time in the UFL and CFL while finding gigs in the NFL in between.
The sixth coach was actually not a coach when he was with the Texans, and that is inside linebackers coach DeMeco Ryans. The former 2006 second-round pick from Alabama played linebacker for Houston from 2006-11 before finishing out his last four seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. Shanahan gave him a job in 2017 as a defensive quality control coach before promoting him to inside linebackers coach in 2018.
The seventh and final coach is special teams coordinator Richard Hightower. He was a special teams assistant with the Texans in 2008, and went on to the University of Minnesota to be a receivers coach in 2009. Hightower spent time coaching under Shanahan in Washington from 2010-13 before going to the 49ers for a one-season stint in 2015. In 2016, he was a special teams assistant with the Chicago Bears, and finally became a special teams coordinator in 2017 for the 49ers.
Who is to say it all would have worked out the same for the Texans as it has for the 49ers? Nonetheless, all seven of these coaches were together and got some valuable experience on the McNairs’ watch in Houston.