Last week, NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger said he’s hearing that there are problems already brewing between 49ers G.M. Trent Baalke and coach Chip Kelly. On Wednesday, Baalke addressed the report (or whatever it was) from Baldinger.
“I can tell you emphatically that is total B.S.,” Baalke said, via Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com. “That’s all I can say. We’ve had absolutely a wonderful start to this relationship, and there’s really nothing else to say. He’s coaching ball, and we’re up there in draft room going to work. It couldn’t be better. Where Baldy got that from, what his angle was, it’s ridiculous. And you can quote me on that.”
On one hand, the denial is predictable and obvious. On the other hand, Baalke provided not a perfunctory refutation but a shout-from-the-rooftops rejection of the suggestion.
It doesn’t mean there won’t be problems down the road, given that Baalke and Jim Harbaugh had problems and that Kelly and Howie Roseman had problems. For now, though, it seems way too early for Baalke and Kelly to not be on the same page.
Inevitably, they might not be. If they currently aren’t, things could get ridiculously ugly come the bye week, when the 49ers could quite possibly be 2-5 or worse.