Brent Jones gave an outstanding interview with John Lund Tuesday on KNBR, an honest must-listen if you are still a member of The Faithful.
Among the things he wanted to get out there:
Jed York deserves credit for cutting his losses, picking a GM is an educated guess that can’t get you either thrilled or dismayed at first, and having the head coach and GM get along all the time — as York has suggested — is an impossible strategy to rely upon.
“You need to have iron sharpen iron,” Jones said. “I want some disagreements between the GM and the head coach. I promise you John McVay had some with Bill Walsh.”
Jones saved his most critical comments for the 49ers’ former coach, Chip Kelly. The longtime tight end said he was shocked when the news leaked that Kelly would be fired on Saturday night, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense.
“I still think Chip got a little bit of a raw deal,” said Jones, “but I’m going to say this (and I kinda held my tongue a little bit during the season): nonchalant is not a strategy for a head football coach. This whole team had no fire in their belly. At all.
“We saw some things, some commentary. Christian Ponder. What a great gutsy comment from a kid that, you know, is basically the third-string quarterback. I don’t know how many people saw this, but he said, ‘Going forward we’re going to have to have more people responsible for knowing the playbook.’ What a nugget. What a nugget. When that kid says that, that says a ton to me. Nobody was accountable. Nobody had a strategy. Nobody had fire. Nobody cared like they need to care.”
Jones also campaigned for two GM candidates: Green Bay’s Eliot Wolf and Seattle’s Trent Kirchner.
“There’s a handful of coaches with coaching trees, there’s also a little bit of a GM tree and it starts in Green Bay and it starts with a guy I had so much admiration for in Ron Wolf,” Jones said. “Ron Wolf is a stud. His GM tree is remarkable. Now, his son, Eliot, has been in Green Bay and I know that he’s going to be interviewing. There’s a guy and it’s in his blood. Now it doesn’t mean he’s going to work miracles his first year. But he’s got a shot.
“The other guy I believe is pretty darn significant is — and this one goes with my belief that you hire your enemies, your No. 1 competitors best people — and there’s a guy who has studied under (John) Schneider the last six years in Seattle by the name of Trent Kirchner. Trent is a legitimate guy.”
Jones also recommended Josh McDaniels, Anthony Lynn and Kyle Shanahan for the head coaching position.