In theory, Jed York’s proposal of bringing in a new GM and a new head coach, firmly together on the same page, is a wonderful proposition.
But he himself told us why this approach is inevitably setup to fail.
“It can’t be, ‘I have the 53-man roster and you need to go back to your office.’ Like we can’t have that,” York said. “It’s got to be these two guys, on the same page, and when we disagree on a player, we need to know what we do when we disagree on a player and know how to move forward and move beyond it.”
Since York is the de facto President of Football Operations for the 49ers, shouldn’t he come up with the rules on how disagreements will be settled? Laughable picturing York in charge of anything football related, I know, but who else dictates this? The GM and head coach are going to make up their own rules to police themselves? Huh?
This is the exact point of bringing in another football person above the GM and coach but beneath York, to settle ties and negotiate peace. It’s healthy for a GM and head coach to disagree on personnel from time-to-time. But over the duration, if one or the other keeps getting his way because he’s running to York’s office, it’ll break the building in Santa Clara.
Here we go again: York is eventually going to pick a favorite between his head coach and GM, and the lucky winner will start to be the benefit of these decisions. It’s already happened with Trent Baalke.
York was blinded by his friendship with Baalke because Baalke allowed him to feel closer to the football team. Baalke made him feel comfortable and important. So York looked the other way when his GM made mistakes, made sure Baalke had more power than Chip Kelly, and before that, hired a puppet in Jim Tomsula. Baalke was pampered and catered to, because Baalke became a friend.
“I think it’s no secret that I’ve known Trent for a long time. Not an easy decision to get rid of somebody that I know, that I trust, that I respect, that I consider a friend,” York said on Monday.
That’s the scariest part of this 49ers search: York is likely seeking out candidates who will make him feel valuable, like his input actually matters for their weekly meetings in Santa Clara — when that’s actually the furthest thing that needs to be happening. There should be a head coach coming in with a strong personality, like Jim Harbaugh. That’s how you create a “championship culture” with a head coach who doesn’t give one damn about appeasing to ownership.
Of course, this is setting up for the inevitable disaster.
“He’s going to pick a favorite,” I said on my podcast. “He’s going to pick Josh McDaniels or Louis Riddick and there’s going to be a stronger relationship with one of those guys and there’s going to be resentment. There’s no buffer in place and the owner is too closely involved in the football operation. The number one problem has not been fixed.”
York’s best hope is for a GM candidate like Riddick who can essentially butter Jed’s bread without becoming vested in a personal relationship. York should not be calling anybody his friend anymore. That’s the fatal flaw of him selecting football decision makers.
“Jed is willing to be the whipping boy to have total control,” I said on the podcast below. “He’s the most hated owner in all of sports right now. New year, 2017, who is more hated than York? Nobody. And he’s totally fine with it as long as he’s the one in totally in charge of the 49ers.”