The 2017 NFL Draft season has gotten underway with practice weeks beginning for the East-West Shrine Game and the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl. The San Francisco 49ers have not hired a general manager or head coach, but that has not stopped them from having a presence at the Shrine Game. NFL Draft analyst Tony Pauling tweeted on Monday that the 49ers were a team that was “well represented” at the first practice of Shrine Game week.
SF 49ers & Washington Redskins scouting departments well represented at first Shrine practice.
— Tony Pauline (@TonyPauline) January 16, 2017
There have been some questions as to how exactly the 49ers will handle the various all star games without a settled front office. Jed York said all 49ers employees under contract are free to search for work elsewhere while the search goes on, but in the meantime, they would seem to still be able to keep doing their work for the 49ers.
I would be curious what a new front office means in terms of scout turnover and any reports from the all star games. My guess is teams retain control of all information gleaned by the scouts in the performance of their job duties. So that would mean a Shrine Game scouting report on a given player would remain the property of the team if a scout was let go. I also would not be surprised if a new GM decided to keep some of the existing scouting framework in place. There will be turnover, but given the number of positions to deal with and the time frame we are talking about at this point, I think we see a hodge-podge of current and new people working in the 49ers front office once a new GM is in place.