Mularkey has since served as the head coach of the Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans, the offensive coordinator for the Steelers, Miami Dolphins and Atlanta Falcons, and the tight ends coach for the Dolphins, Titans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Falcons.

In his nine NFL seasons, Mularkey played in 114 regular-season games, started 46 of them, and caught 102 passes for 1,222 yards and nine touchdowns.

His skill for creating special packages to utilize multi-dimensional players such as Hines Ward and Antwaan Randle El earned Mularkey the nickname "Inspector Gadget.

[10] In 2004, Mularkey left the Steelers and was hired by the Buffalo Bills to succeed Gregg Williams as the team's head coach.

Dogged by a quarterback controversy between J. P. Losman and Kelly Holcomb and a series of defensive personnel problems, Mularkey led the team to a 5–11 record and a sixth consecutive year out of the playoffs – the longest such active streak in the American Football Conference (AFC).

[15] On January 12, 2006, Mularkey resigned as head coach of the Bills, citing a disagreement in the direction of the organization, who had recently hired new management, including ex-coach Marv Levy.

[17] As the offensive coordinator under Miami's head coach, Nick Saban, Mularkey had an unsuccessful season with injuries to his first-string quarterback Daunte Culpepper and starting running back Ronnie Brown.

[21] On March 15, it was officially announced that Cameron himself would call the offensive plays in 2007, leaving Mularkey to serve as tight ends coach.

[30] Mularkey led the team to a 2–14 record,[31] which was the worst in franchise history up to that point, and was fired after only one season on January 10, 2013.

[35] On January 16, 2016, the Titans announced that they would retain Mularkey as their full-time head coach[36][37] on a three-year contract[38] in a highly criticized move by their fans and the media, who characterized the hire as "uninspired"[39] and "awful".

[46] In 2017, the Titans again finished with a 9–7 record, making the playoffs for the first time in nine years with a 15–10 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars in the regular-season finale.

In the Wild Card Round, the Titans rallied from a 21–3 halftime deficit against the Kansas City Chiefs to narrowly win on the road by a score of 22–21; this was their first playoff victory since 2003.

Shane was a scholarship football player at University of North Carolina, but ended his playing days after shoulder surgery.