NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Mike Garofolo dropped two interesting nuggets today regarding Trent Baalke’s firing from the 49ers.
A) Baalke did not have relationships with the coaching staff, rarely asking for their input on players.
B) Chip Kelly wanted to draft Dak Prescott, but Baalke did not.
Sources told KNBR.com a few other details of Baalke’s lack of communication skills and a distorted sense of reality.
Some assistant coaches said Baalke never learned their names. Communication with coaching ran only through Chip Kelly. Cliche speeches the former GM delivered to the scouting department about “winning championships” fell on deaf ears. Some wondered if the aloof Baalke realized he was being taken as a joke around the building.
“There wasn’t tension but the building felt fractured,” said the source.
Also, assistant coaches complained at the lack of urgency from Baalke and his scouting staff. In a season in which he realized his job was going to be on the line, Baalke’s biggest free agent acquisition was left guard Zane Beadles and he drafted no skill position players until the sixth round of the draft.
Baalke was trying to jam a square peg into a round hole with his roster and let top-level assistant like Tom Gamble empower him to do so.
The battle over personnel was highlighted over Marcus Rush on the practice squad. To start the year, O’Neil said he would be shocked if the outside linebacker wasn’t on the 53-man roster later in the season. But Baalke refused to promote him, even when pass rushing was badly needed.
“I’m not going to second guess people in the building,” O’Neil said. “So, I’m not going to go there.”
After Kelly said the 49ers don’t have a wide receiver other teams have to double-cover, I asked offensive coordinator Curtis Modkins if he lobbied to Baalke that this team needed more receivers in the offseason.
“I’m not involved in any discussion with Trent about anything like that,” Modkins said.
Of course, all of this falls back on delusional Jed York, who let Baalke hire Kelly without understanding their brands of football weren’t going to mesh. The 49ers GM drafted defensive players in the first round four straight years; Kelly’s offense requires three wide receivers and an accurate quarterback — pieces Baalke did not value at all.
Baalke’s first problem was his backwards football philosophy, but his second problem was communication. He didn’t listen to what his coaches were telling him. In Trent Dilfer terminology, a lot of Baalke’s groceries were meant for a different meal.