After being tossed out of his last job amid charges of not playing well with others, 49ers coach Chip Kelly isn’t about complain about the way his new team is doing business.
The 49ers haven’t done much in free agency at all — with a reported deal for guard Zane Beadles a replacement for departed Alex Boone the only transaction of note.
But Kelly credited General Manager Trent Baalke and salary cap guy Paraag Marathe with taking the long view.
“Trent, Paraag and those guys had a great plan going into it, in terms of how they looked at it,” Kelly said, via Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com. “I think some of it goes crazy right at the beginning.
“I think you just have to look at who fits and who’s the right fit for the organization. I don’t know if it’s let big money deals go or not go, it’s just what exactly are you looking for. Our guys do a great job of targeting what we want the San Francisco 49ers to be, and see how it works out from a contract standpoint.”
And in a curious turn for a guy whose emotional intelligence was challenged, Kelly said there’s a concern about how being a player in free agency could impact existing players.
“Are we going to take this player and pay him more than anybody on our team? And is that player worth more than anybody on our current team?” Kelly said. “You also have to kind of look at that.
“Some of the money that was being thrown around at the beginning, you got to be able to manage that. You got to pay some guy who’s never been to a Pro Bowl that’s going to make more than anybody on your roster. That’s a little bit difficult. There are a lot of things that get involved in some of these things.”
Of course, the 49ers won’t really be able to declare a direction until they decide upon a quarterback. At the moment, they’re saying they want that quarterback to remain Colin Kaepernick, though that doesn’t seem like a stable position because of the way he’s made it clear he wanted out.