By cutting ties with G.M. Scot McCloughan only five weeks before the draft, the San Francisco 49ers could be thrusting into the hands of another team a guy who has spent nearly a year assessing the latest crop of incoming players.
And if McCloughan officially becomes in the near future a former employee of the team, he will have other options, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.
The Packers, Schefter says, are widely believed to be a potential destination, given McCloughan’s long-time friendship with Green Bay G.M. Ted Thompson and the void created when John Schneider left Wisconsin to become the Seahawks’ General Manager.
Even though McCloughan’s files have been removed from his office, his brain can’t be expunged. Thus, he’d give another team a fresh perspective, at a minimum helping with the refinement of the draft board.
For that reason, the 49ers might be thinking about squatting on his rights until after the draft. If they’re going to pay him anyway, why not retain him as an employee through the end of April?
Of course, that won’t keep him from talking to Thompson or anyone else with whom McCloughan chooses to collaborate regarding his views on certain players, hypothetically of course.
This reality, coupled with the offset the Niners would receive based on McCloughan’s earnings elsewhere, make it prudent in our view for San Fran to cut the cord now, and to give him the ability to start earning money from his next employer sooner rather than later.