49ers team president Jed York says he’s going to hire a G.M. that will have the sole authority to hire a coach. Based on one report in San Francisco, York may wind up looking for a G.M. that will hire the coach York wants.
Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News cites two sources that claim Jon Gruden and Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh are atop York’s wish list for a potential coach.
“Around the league, the chatter is about which G.M. candidates would fit with Gruden or Harbaugh, not about which coaches would fit with, say, Ted Sundquist, Floyd Reese or Randy Mueller,” Kawakami writes.
While this item isn’t particularly shocking, it does contradict basically everything York said on Monday. (Expect denials from the 49ers.) Then again, his hint that he’ll be looking for an offensive coach somewhat undermined his statement that he’d stay out of the coaching search.
York, 29, is also facing questions in the Bay Area about his readiness to make a decision on the next 49ers G.M. by himself. It sounds like he’ll get some help from his uncle Eddie DeBartalo Jr. and possibly the NFL.
“I know for a fact the league wants to help the Yorks because it wants a stronger team in San Francisco,” Lowell Cohn of the Santa Press Democrat wrote.