When the 49ers stumbled through the early part of the 2010 season under head coach Mike Singletary, it was reported that the team decided not to fire Singletary in part because the organization didn’t believe that there were any viable interim replacements on the coaching staff. When owner Jed York ultimately took Singletary out of his, and the team’s, misery, the one-game interim assignment went not to offensive coordinator Mike Johnson or to defensive coordinator Greg Manusky but to defensive line coach Jim Tomsula.
And after the one-game assignment for Tomsula ended, Manusky likely wasn’t regarded as a serious candidate to become the team’s head coach.
But other teams see something in Manusky that the Niners didn’t. He’s a candidate for the position of defensive coordinator with the Cardinals, Chargers, and Cowboys, and Manusky interviewed for the head-coaching position in Carolina, which ultimately when to guy he’d be replacing in San Diego, Ron Rivera.
Clarence E. Hill, Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that Manusky will interview for the defensive coordinator position in Dallas today.
The Niners would have been wise, in our view, to consider keeping Manusky around, like the Ravens did with Rex Ryan after firing Brian Billick and not elevating Ryan into the top job. In this uncertain year where continuity will be critical, especially if a lockout consumes the offseason program, training camp, and the preseason, it would have made sense to continue with a defense that did fairly well considering the wall against which the team’s offense routinely backed it.
The fact that Manusky was passed over for the interim gig suggests that there’s something about Manusky that the Niners just don’t like. It’ll be interesting to see whether the teams considering him assume that the Niners are off base, or whether they attempt to find out exactly why his most recent employer had no interest in keeping him around, in any capacity.