49ers head coach rumors: Mike Shanahan spoke with Trent Baalke on Tuesday, per report

Trent Baalke is in the thick of the interview process, and Matt Maiocco is reporting that included a conversation with Mike Shanahan. One would assume it was in regard to the San Francisco 49ers head coaching vacancy, but there are no details yet as to the specifics of the conversation.

Shanahan was first mentioned as a potential candidate by Bleacher Report's Jason Cole. He initially suggested Joe Montana and Steve Young were two former 49ers players pushing hard for the organization to consider him. In his report, Cole said the 49ers legends believe the team "needs a big name coach to come in and take control of that team. A guy who's much more discipline oriented, who can push that team to where it was the previous three years. Get it back on track. Their belief is that you gotta have guy like Shanahan, especially to work with Colin Kaepernick. He's basically the quarterback whisperer in this case. That's what they'd like to say."

When the 49ers released Jed York's statement about the departure of Jim Harbaugh, he said that that Trent Baalke would lead the process to find the next head coach. We don't know for certain, but that would seemingly mean he is taking part in all the interviews conducted thus far, and to be conducted moving forward. As long as Baalke is the one in charge of this process, and not York, I can live with it. It does not mean he will end up making the right choice, but I am more confident in him than York by a long shot.

The 49ers reportedly interviewed DC Vic Fangio and Seattle Seahawks DC Dan Quinn on Tuesday. Shanahan's son Kyle is also reportedly on the 49ers list, and since the Cleveland Browns are not in the playoffs, he would be free to interview whenever. However, given that the 49ers are interviewing numerous playoff team assistants, I imagine Kyle Shanahan's potential interview would wait.