Ted Robinson: If the 49ers change head coaches, they have to hit a home run

On Monday, San Francisco 49ers radio play-by-play voice, Ted Robinson, joined Rise Guys on ESPN 1320 to discuss the team's loss on Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons. One topic that was discussed was the head coaching position.

Robinson was asked about the likelihood that Chip Kelly would return to the team. "I'm going to sound like Chip when I say, 'Speculation's not a healthy thing,'" said Robinson. "I totally get that everybody asked that question. There's no way that if I were sitting in the ultimate chair, that you could look at this season and say anything or anyone is safe. How would you say that? Just look at the body of work, the evidence. Take subjectivity out of it and just look at it and just look at it and say, 'How can I say I say anything and anyone is safe?'

"Now, you can look at it several ways. You could say, 'This has been substantiated that the roster needs massive upgrading and so we're going to address that – the evaluation and drafting and talent and let the coaching staff stay in place.'

"You could also look at it and say, 'It's all going to change. It's time to dig the entire road up instead of patching potholes,' which is really what the approach last year was kind of a pothole thing. You could look at it that way or you could do complete status quo and just say, 'We're not going to change anything.' I would say the likelihood of that happening, in my view, would be very minuscule. But those are the options that you have.

"Now, there's two competing thoughts that go around. We all hear it, right? People are saying, 'Well, you can't change the coach. It's not right. Etc, etc. There's some validity to that. Nobody wants to change coaches but if you adopt that approach, you have to also have to embrace the concept that the current situation can improve. If you look at this, you would be hard pressed to see where that proof is. Where is the thing that I can latch on to and say, 'This is going to be dramatically better next year?' I would think that's a hard thing to see right now.

"Now, the flip side is if you change coaches. And as everyone says, 'Well, you can't have four coaches in four years.' Good point. Nobody wants that and it does stretch the belief that the job is attractive. But that's where the obligation goes on the organization to go out and hit a home run. If they decide that a coaching change is right, they have to go out and hit a home run and find a Harbaugh (or) even better, to me. That kind of a hire. That kind of credibility position. It isn't just going out and finding an assistance coach that we don't know, who might end up being a terrific coach, but you don't know that. I think that would be a hard thing to do and find that attractive a candidate, by the way, if you are saying it's going to be the fourth coach in four years."

You can listen to the entire interview on ESPN 1320.