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Fooch's note: I updated the title to say "could get" instead of "to get" because there is still a little confusion as to what will happen. Per Maiocco, Bowles's agent said he does not have direct knowledge of any 49ers plans to bring in Bowles for a second interview. My guess is it's semantics games, but we'll see.
The San Francisco 49ers coaching search is taking a step forward after silence heading into the weekend. Jason LaCanfora is reporting the 49ers will conduct a second interview with Arizona Cardinals defensive coordinator Todd Bowles. The Cardinals saw their season end last weekend to the Carolina Panthers, which means Bowles is free to interview just about whenever he wants.
Matt Barrows tweeted that a date has not been set yet. but that it is expected to happen this week. His source said that Bowles's interview went better than expected on Friday. Bowles was the last of the interviews for the 49ers.
Bowles is also in the mix for the Chicago Bears and Atlanta Falcons jobs. There have been reports he is really content in Arizona, and so he would consider sticking around if the perfect opportunity does not present itself this offseason. He has done great work with the Cardinals defense, and they will get back some key pieces next season. It is certainly possible his stock could take a hit, but my guess is that if he so chose, he would be in a similar situation heading into the 2016 round of coaching hires.
This all comes following reports the Buffalo Bills are close to hiring Rex Ryan to be their next head coach. That first hire could be what sets the rest of the dominos in motion. If the 49ers are waiting until later this week for a second interview with Bowles, it will be interesting to see what they do if some of the other coaches start getting hired. They don't want to force anything, but they need to make sure their new head coach has time to put together a quality staff. Of course, if it ends up being Vic Fangio, there could be a decent amount of internal promotions. That would make things easier, and could be why the 49ers are content taking their time to a certain degree.