(Photo via 49ers.com)
As the 49ers get set to embark on a mission to blast themselves out of the NFL’s black hole, Tuesday’s hire may prove to be the most underestimated component in an eventual turnaround.
Adam Peters is San Francisco’s newest VP of player personnel, and his job title could end up occupying the biggest umbrella in the organization.
Peters’ tasks are monstrous: Train John Lynch how to be a GM, implement a brand new scouting system for grading players, oversee and stack an NFL Draft board, execute plans in free agency. In Year 1, Peters is essentially going to run the team’s day-to-day front office operation. He’ll be making plenty of decisions all on his own.
Many had hoped and prayed the 49ers would hire an executive who had seen what winning looks like up close and personal. That’s exactly the reputation Peters is bringing and why Lynch plucked him away from John Elway as soon as possible. A 14-year career with both New England and Denver is about as strong of a resume as and up-and-coming executive can have. If he’s been watching both Nick Caserio and Elway like a hawk, forward-thinking resolutions will be in the 49ers’ future.
Kyle Shanahan will reportedly hold final say on the 53-man roster, but he told reporters in Houston there’s entirely too much on his plate as a head coach to be focused on the day-to-day world of the scouts. Shanahan expects collaboration and he wants to trust the 49ers’ front office — not to defy them.
“You never want to make decisions by yourself,” Shanahan said on Monday. “You want to make decisions with the group. No one has the time or energy to know everything. People have certain areas of expertise. You’re looking for guys that work all year round finding players, and stuff, just like we work all year round looking at Xs and Os, trying to study your own team. You’ve got to depend on those guys.”
Once Shanahan can be officially hired and hold his press conference next week in Santa Clara, it’ll be time to roll the sleeves up and immediately get to work. Shanahan will watch film with Lynch and Peters, breaking down in great detail what positions the 49ers need most — nearly everything — and what types of players can thrive in his schemes.
But Peters will be expected to have a voice in these proceedings, too. He wasn’t just hired to execute decisions; he was brought in to implement a vision of his own. Having dealt recently with Brock Osweiler’s exit and two rookie quarterbacks, Peters’ expertise could be forming a consensus opinion with Shanahan on the team’s QB of the future.
And while all this football philosophy stuff is being sorted out and organized, here’s where Paraag Marathe’s role actually becomes a major asset to the 49ers: It’s one less thing Peters has to worry about when training Lynch. We all know Marathe’s history with the team has been rocky, but his contract negotiations have never been criticized. Everyone’s roles seem to be shaping up.
“It’s always a work in progress. There’s got to be a lot of dialogue,” Shanahan said Monday. “You’ve got to work with a lot of people together. But you’re always trying to get to the same goal and that’s ‘What player is going to help you win a championship?’ People aren’t always going to agree. There’s going to be disagreements, and stuff. When you’re working with people whose intent is the same as yours, it’s fun to have disagreements because you both get better from it.”
It was an encouraging sign to see how quickly Peters jumped to work with Lynch and the 49ers. Now that Lynch is the guy on the other end of the phone line, it seems to have given the 49ers an instant lift in credibility.