Pat Shurmur

Patrick Carl Shurmur (born April 14, 1965) is an American football coach who serves as the offensive coordinator at the University of Colorado Boulder.

He earned All-Big Ten Conference honors and also earned honorable mention All-America honors in 1987, his senior year (MG).

He was co-captain when the Spartans defeated the USC Trojans in the Rose Bowl in his senior year.

Shurmur was the first graduate student to play on the Michigan State football team, as he began studying for his master's degree in financial administration during his senior season.

During Shurmur's NFL coaching career, he has been a part of eight playoff teams, winning six division crowns and appearing in the Super Bowl.

Additionally, the Eagles set an NFL record with 99 plays of 20+ yards and became the first team since the 1991 Buffalo Bills to lead the league in rushing while ranking last in time of possession.

His uncle, Fritz Shurmur, was an NFL coach for 24 years, including a stint as defensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers from 1994 to 1998, which included a victory in Super Bowl XXXI.

After graduating from Divine Child High School, Shurmur attended Michigan State University, where he was a four-year letterman for the Michigan State Spartans football team.

He played guard and linebacker his freshman season, and started at center the next three seasons.

Shurmur began working for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1999, serving as both the tight ends coach and the offensive line coach.

Shurmur helped mold tight end Chad Lewis into a three-time Pro Bowl selection.

He was the 13th head coach in franchise history, and the sixth since the franchise's revival in 1999.

Part of the reason Shurmur was hired was the team wanted him to call the plays on offense as Holmgren did in Green Bay and Seattle.

Another reason for the hire was Shurmur's past success of developing young quarterbacks such as McNabb and Bradford.

In 2002, Shurmur was named the team’s quarterback coach.

In that role, Shumur helped shape Donovan McNabb into the most prolific passer in Eagles history.

In 2004, Shurmur and McNabb helped guide the Eagles to their first Super Bowl appearance since the 1980 season.

McNabb holds nearly every Eagles career passing record, and in 2008, he set Eagles single-season records with 345 completions and 3,916 yards.

On January 21, 2009, Shurmur was hired by Steve Spagnuolo to be the offensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams.

He helped the Rams improve to a 7–9 record following a 1–15 season in 2009, the second-biggest turnaround in the league in 2010.

He guided St. Louis’ offense to improvements in nearly every category including total yards, time of possession and third-down percentage, while they also scored 114 more points than the previous year.

In addition, the Rams committed just 21 turnovers in 2010, tied for the ninth-lowest total in the NFL.

Shurmur also made a tangible impact on Sam Bradford’s immediate success as a rookie in 2010.

The first-overall pick out of the University of Oklahoma set NFL rookie records for most consecutive passes without an interception (169) and most completions (354).

Under Shurmur’s tutelage, Bradford finished the season with a 60.0 completion percentage, 3,512 yards and 18 touchdown passes, winning the AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Award.

The Browns selected quarterback Colt McCoy in the third round of the 2010 NFL Draft, and in McCoy’s first season with Shurmur as his coach, the former University of Texas standout posted a slight improvement in 2011, throwing for 2,733 yards and 14 touchdown passes in 13 games.

Despite this, the Browns went 4–12 that season, a regression from the previous years 5–11 campaign.

Shurmur was interviewed by the Cleveland Browns on January 7, 2011 to be their head coach.

On January 13, 2011, Shurmur was hired by Mike Holmgren, with whom he shares agent Bob LaMonte, to become the next head coach of the Cleveland Browns.

In the 2012 season, the Browns showed little progress behind new starter and first round draft pick, Brandon Weeden, who finished 29th out of 32 qualified starters in passer rating.

After the end of the 2012 season, Shurmur and general manager Tom Heckert, Jr. were fired, after accumulating a 9–23 record over the course of the 2011 and 2012 seasons and having finished 25th in the NFL in offensive yards gained in the 2012 season.

On January 20, 2013, Shurmur accepted a job with the Philadelphia Eagles as their offensive coordinator.

Working alongside new head coach Chip Kelly, Shurmur helped orchestrate one of the most efficient offenses in the NFL.

Shurmur led an offense that set a number of team records, including points (442), total net yards (6,676), touchdowns (53), passing yards (4,406) and fewest turnovers (19) en route to an NFC East title.

He also served as interim head coach for Philadelphia Eagles at the end of the 2015 season.

He has been an offensive coordinator for seven seasons, previously coaching in that role with the Minnesota Vikings (2016–2017), Philadelphia Eagles (2013–2015) and the St. Louis Rams (2009–2010).

Born in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, Shurmur comes from a football background.

Shurmur has four years of experience as a head coach, working in that role with the New York Giants from 2018 to 2019 and with the Cleveland Browns from 2011 to 2012.

Prior to joining the staff at Colorado, he most recently served as the offensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL) from 2020 to 2021.

A 32-year coaching veteran, Shurmur has 21 seasons of NFL experience, including the last 11 years as a head coach or offensive coordinator.