Chip Kelly, others wanted Dak Prescott, Trent Baalke said no

The San Francisco 49ers announced the firing of Trent Baalke on Sunday, and it should surprise nobody that anonymous folks are starting to unload. Mike Garafolo is reporting Chip Kelly and others in the building wanted to draft Dak Prescott and Trent Baalke said no. Ian Rapoport is reporting coaches felt there was no communication with Baalke. And on Sunday, Jay Glazer reported that Baalke was the reason things did not work out with Gase in the 2015 search that led to Jim Tomsula getting the job.

Bleacher Report analyst Matt Miller had reported 49ers interest in Prescott back before the draft. One of Baalke’s blind spots has seemed to be the quarterback position. Whether or not Prescott would have worked out, of course people would start dumping on Baalke now that we know he is doing some big things. I imagine other teams will use Prescott as blame for why something did not work out.

The communication stuff is not entirely surprising. Aside from the fact that Baalke did come down and do some coaching up of defensive backs at least that one time, he has never been the most gregarious of personalities. It does not mean he needed to be a big charmer, but it is not entirely surprising communication would be an issue. At the same time, it is no surprise that fired 49ers coaches would be pissed at him and want to unload any and all gripes.

And finally, Sunday morning, Jay Glazer offered this up. You can watch the video above, but here is the transcript of the meat of his comments:

“The Trent Baalke thing’s been interesting because, as we know, there’s been a lot of controversy surrounding him and several of their coaches. Him and Jim Harbaugh, Jim Tomsula, and now Chip Kelly. But there was actually a fourth possible head coach that nobody knows about that Trent Baalke had something to do with. And that was Adam Gase. Adam Gase, who’s now the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, was basically informed two years ago that, ‘Hey, we’re going with you, we’re bringing you out here as the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers.’ Gase was getting everything all packed up, and in the 11th and a half hour, he was informed that Trent Baalke went to ownership and had them make an about-face on Adam Gase. But can you imagine, that didn’t happen, Miami Dolphin fans, you guys are lucky that it ended up happening.”

Previous reports had suggested Jed York was somewhat responsible for trying to push Jim Tomsula on Gase after it seemed like the decision was done. Glazer suggested that Baalke was responsible for this. Given Baalke’s loyalty, I would be surprised if Jed turned on him in this manner and leaked this angle, but maybe it was Paraag. It is easy to lose track of who is leaking what at any given time.

The 49ers will continue their process for finding a new general manager and head coach, but I can’t imagine this is the end of the dumping on Trent Baalke this week.