49ers general manager/head coach search rumors/news recap, January 2

Mel Kiper has the draft with prospective football players, I get to talk about prospective General Managers and Head Coaches. This has pretty much become a regular thing for me at Niners Nation and since consistency doesn’t seem to be in the vocabulary of the San Francisco 49ers front office, you may as well be expecting ‘ole Uncle El Pato to tuck you in with all the news swirling around. The 49ers will give me enough leaks to have us going off on tangents throughout the next two weeks.

The Story Thus Far:

In case you didn’t know, the San Francisco 49ers fired general manager Trent Baalke and head coach Chip Kelly. There’s plenty of posts starting up with the political drama backstage between those two, so I won’t go into it here. In any case, here’s my sendoff to those two.

After the firing, on Monday, Jed York took to his yearly press conference to discuss the state of the team. Fighting for the honor of ‘Quote of the Day’ was Jed being asked why he shouldn’t be dismissed and he responded with:

“I own this football team. You don’t dismiss owners.”

So there you have it. Jed York wants us to know you can’t dismiss owners. Actor and former Saturday Night Live cast member Rob Scheider disagrees:

Also to take from the press conference: Jed York and Paraag Marathe, chief strategy officer and executive VP of football operations, will be heading up the search for the next general manager.

General Manager Connections (so far):

With the 49ers being the only team in the league looking for a GM this offseason, this means they won’t have competition for a prospective candidate’s services. But since this is the 49ers, the candidates can definitely send the “thanks, but no thanks” memo

That’s exactly what Kansas City Chiefs personnel executive Chris Ballard said when contacted by the team. A report by Matt Barrows earlier in the day indicated a meeting was set up, but Ballard apparently had second thoughts.

Besides these candidates, it’s been reported that ESPN analyst Louis Riddick Minnesota assistant general manager George Paton, Seattle co-player personnel directors Trent Kirchner and Scott Fitterer, and Atlanta Falcons Assistant GM Scott Pioli are in the candidacy to become the next 49ers GM. None of these candidates have interviews scheduled as of yet.

Now for interviews: The 49ers are set to meet with Green Bay Packers executive Eliot Wolf. Wolf’s name was attached to the 49ers during the season, so this very well may be the guy they’ve had in mind. Also in Green Bay, the 49ers will interview Packers director of college scouting Brian Gutekunst. While the Packers are in Wild Card preparations, executives are still allowed to interview once permission has been granted. The actual date hasn’t been revealed yet, but we do know it’s this week.

And finally, Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio has an interview planned for this weekend while the Patriots are on a bye. Which brings us to:

Coaching Connections (so far):

With the Caserio interview, the 49ers will also take a swing at New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels for the vacant head coaching position. Keep in mind, this will be the only week they can interview McDaniels. Once the Patriots go into the playoffs, no coaching staff can interview until they exit from the post season. McDaniels needs no introduction, he’s led one of the more efficient offenses in the league and has had his name attached to several job openings each offseason and this offseason is no different. While McDaniels’s offensive efficiency can be attributed to Tom Brady as his quarterback, he showed some good things with two other quarterbacks during Brady’s suspension at the beginning of the year. For those of you traditionalists, remember, if McDaniels is hired in San Francisco, the west coast offense doesn’t come with him. The Patriots run an offense much different than the WCO, the Erhardt-Perkins system.

Along with McDaniels, 49ers are set to interview Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. Also vying for Shanahan’s services are the Los Angeles Rams, Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Denver Broncos. The son of former 49ers offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan, the younger Shanahan would no doubt bring a west coast offense back to San Francisco if hired. The Falcons offense has been very explosive this season and a lot of that can be attributed to Shanahan.

The final name to be linked to the 49ers is Buffalo Bills interim head coach Anthony Lynn. Lynn had an interview with the 49ers last year and some speculated he may come over as the offensive coordinator. In Buffalo he had a quite a year, he started as running backs coach, was promoted to offensive coordinator when his predecessor, Bills OC (and former OC of the 49ers) Greg Roman was fired. Following head coach Rex Ryan’s firing, Lynn was promoted to interim head coach. That’s quite a career progression in six months.

Other names linked to the 49ers are Seattle Seahawks offensive line coach Tom Cable, Miami Dolphins Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, and Jacksonville Jaguars offensive line coach Doug Marrone. While interest has been reported, no interviews are scheduled at this time.

We’ll go into depth on the candidates more tomorrow and what other teams are looking for their services. We’ll also bring back the Coach Tracker and track those coaches and see what other teams are interviewing them.

NFL Vacancies

Buffalo Bills
Los Angeles Rams
Jacksonville Jaguars
San Diego Chargers
San Francisco 49ers
Denver Broncos