The San Francisco 49ers interviewed Buffalo Bills interim head coach and offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn on Wednesday, and are headed to Atlanta now or shortly to meet with Atlanta Falcons OC Kyle Shanahan. They will follow that with an interview with Josh McDaniels on Saturday, Washington OC Sean McVay on Sunday or Monday, Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott on Monday, and Dolphins DC Vance Joseph and Seahawks OL coach Tom Cable sometime after that.
As the 49ers figure out their general manager and head coach positions, part of the interview process almost assuredly involves the quarterback position. The 49ers have four quarterbacks on their roster (including Thad Lewis). If Colin Kaepernick opts out of his contract, they could conceivably enter free agency with zero quarterbacks on the roster. It is safe to say something needs to be done, even if Kaepernick does not opt out.
The GM and coach candidates need some kind of philosophy about the most important position on the roster. It gets interesting because some of these candidates come with a quarterback name attached to them. Josh McDaniels has Jimmy Garoppolo. Sean McVay has his current connection to Kirk Cousins, while Kyle Shanahan has his previous connection when he was offensive coordinator. Anthony Lynn has the Tyrod Taylor connection.
The general manager will have plenty of say in how to address the quarterback position, but again, there are some potential connections. The most notable pairing possibilities are McDaniels with either Nick Caserio or Louis Riddick. It could also be an entirely unexpected pairing, but whichever it ends up being needs to figure out the quarterback position in a hurry.
The two best quarterback options connected to this group for the time being are Jimmy Garoppolo and Kirk Cousins. Garoppolo is going to cost a pretty penny, with Adam Schefter suggesting the bidding will start at a first and fourth. Cousins is a free agent in March, but Washington could elect to place the franchise tag on him. As I understand it, they could simply place the exclusive franchise tag because it would be the same price being the second year on the tag. The exclusive tag means he can only negotiate with Washington. A trade would be a possibility, but no free agent negotiations.