CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora dropped a bombshell report Sunday morning, saying GM Trent Baalke is as good as gone, Chip Kelly is also not safe and that the York family will take a bigger role in trying to help guide the franchise from the basement.
On Monday, he hopped on with Gary and Larry to add more context to his report, beginning with current CEO Jed York, who would essentially see his power taken away.
“Jed would be out. He wouldn’t be involved in football operations,” La Canfora said. “I mean you can get cute with titles. You can do whatever you think you have to do. But the premise would be, the top of the pyramid would be this person they bring in, to effectively be running the football operation.
“It would (be) more to shift things away from again Jed being sort of the face of all things 49ers football. You would have in the future, let’s ponder future press conferences. It wouldn’t be Jed and (Trent) Baalke and the coach. It would be somebody else, the coach and the GM.”
La Canfora also clarified that Dr. John and Denise York would not be replacing Jed. They want to hire someone to oversee the entire football operation, something their son has done now for several seasons.
“They would extensively hire someone to actually run the football operations on a day-to-day basis,” La Canfora said. “There would be someone there, whether it’s Mike Shanahan or whomever — who may then themselves decide I should be the coach and executive vice president of football operations. But at the very least, there would be someone there, a football man, atop the entire personnel pyramid, who would essentially be a team president / head of football ops, making the day-to-day decisions on the way things operate.”
As for Kelly’s future? Nothing new on that front. So what about Mike and Kyle Shanahan? Is this truly the best the 49ers could do if they decide to part ways with Kelly after one season?
“Wherever Mike was to end up — and I’m not assuming he definitely does get something,” La Canfora said. “I think his best shot to get something would be San Francisco. But that’s not a guarantee.
“I don’t see them as a package deal. There’s a lot of people who have advised Kyle, people he respects, in the coaching community, people who have been in the league a long time, even some at the ownership level who have advised that the best move for him was to cut his own path. To sort of be his own man and work somewhere where he’s the head coach and not reporting to his dad. The plan in Washington was for Mike would do it for three or four years and turn it over to Kyle, but that whole thing got so toxic, Kyle had to break free and spend time with the Browns. Obviously he’s done a heck of a job with the Falcons.
“Obviously, Kyle will be interviewing for head coaching jobs. There would be no shortage of people advising Kyle. Don’t just hop back in the saddle with your dad. He needs to kind of break free from some of the cries of nepotism that haunted him at times in his career.”