The timing seemed a little strange on Friday night, when the 49ers announced they had signed tight end Vance McDonald to a lucrative five-year extension.
The 49ers are 6-23 in the last two seasons, meaning GM Trent Baalke’s job status is certainly not safe. Should the organization be letting Baalke make these types of financial decisions if he’s not in the future plans?
But on KNBR’s pregame show with Ted Robinson and Tim Ryan, Baalke said more extensions could be announced this month.
“We’re working on three or four as we speak,” Baalke said. “How much headway we make over the next month, you know I’m not sure. It looks positive, and hopefully we’ll announce a few more here by the end of the year.”
Kudos to Ryan, who did manage to ask Baalke about the Jason La Canfora report that he’s likely out of of the job.
“I don’t worry about it. It is what it is,” Baalke said. “I’m going to keep putting my head down and going to work. It’s just something you can’t control. You try and control the things that you can control. Ownership has been more than supportive. I’ve come out and said that multiple times over the last eight to 10 weeks, whatever it’s been.
“Like I told (our players) this week, these last four games, they mean something. If you have any pride, you are not at this level if you don’t have pride. You’ve been there in these situations. These last four mean something. Everybody is being evaluated. That’s an every day thing in the National Football League. We’re going to find out who wants to come out here and compete and play. I think this group is wired right. I think they will come out today (vs. Jets) and play hard and play together.”
Finally, this was an interesting comment about the 32nd ranked defense, a unit Baalke has invested nearly all of his high draft picks on. The last four seasons, the 49ers have used their top pick on a defensive players — DeForest Buckner, Arik Armstead, Jimmie Ward and Eric Reid.
“Well just, non-opportunistic I guess is the best (description),” Baalke said about the defense. “You get into situations where it’s third-and-long and you don’t get off the field. We’ve given up way too many big plays. We’ve just got to play consistently for 60 minutes. In a 70-play game, there’s plenty of evidence that group can play at a fairly decent level — a high level at times. For whatever reason, there’s been some breakdowns, some things that you’d like to have back.”
The 49ers (1-12) travel to play the Atlanta Falcons (8-5) this Sunday.