Perhaps the only surprising thing about Mike Singletary (above) being relieved of his head coaching duties in San Francisco is that he was ultimately outlasted by Oakland’s Tom Cable. The SF vacancy presents an opportunity for 29 year-old club president Jed York, “to try to become the first strong, cunning, feared 49ers leader since the forced exit of his uncle, Eddie DeBartolo Jr.” writes the San Jose Mercury News’ Tim Kawakami. Trouble, is getting to the stage will likely require “hiring someone who will tell the York family that almost everything they have done has been all wrong.”
Can York go on a search to find someone to tell him exactly how foolish his family has been?
A poor owner — such as Jed’s predecessor, his father, John — would never do that. An immature heir — like Jed was in his first few years as an executive — would avoid that at all costs.
On Sunday evening, York told an NFL Network reporter that current top personnel executive Trent Baalke would be a candidate for the GM job.
But Baalke has to be a courtesy candidate, or there are problems ahead. Elevating Baalke would be another in a line of cautious York moves, hiring the safe, cheap and familiar instead of the bold, expensive and challenging.
The timeline: Fire Singletary; hire a general manager with deep NFL connections; then huddle with the general manager to hire an aggressive, quarterback-friendly coach to fix an offense that Singletary has driven into the ground.