Former San Francisco 49ers head coach and current
NFL Network analyst Mike Nolan
joined Joe, Lo & Dibs on
95.7 The Game to discuss, among other things, the current state of the team. The 49ers are coming off of yet another embarrassing loss to a Chicago Bears team that many, including critics, believe the 49ers should have beaten despite their then-10-game losing streak.
Nolan started by comparing the current team to the 49ers team that he took over in 2005. "There really was not a lot of good personnel on the team," Nolan said. "The difference though that I think is better and will continue to be better is they will be a much better cap situation football team going forward than we ever were back then. As a matter of fact, they'll be very good because Paraag Marathe does do an excellent job at his position with the 49ers as far as keeping their numbers right with contracts and all that stuff.
"But the losing is really killing them. And the personnel – I'll say this, too – the personnel is NOT as bad as they're playing. And that's the thing that really gets under your skin as a coach, because you're frustrated by what's going on. But more importantly, as the organization and the brass at the very top, naturally when they're thinking about, 'Do we keep this receiver or move on?' – I think something that enters into the picture here that is not really talked about so much but it definitely has to be on the mind of the ownership and all, and that is they're paying [Jim] Tomsula currently. They owe Jim [Harbaugh] at least two more years, if not three more years. If they make a change with Chip Kelly, that's another three or four years on the books. So you're going to have two head coaches you're paying contracts of. So if you go hire another guy, that's a lot of money, just wasted money, that's out there on coaches.
"The thing that I have thought most of the season was when people were talking about changes when the losses started to mount up, was not to change it. Because I know Trent [Baalke] personally, and Trent does a good job with personnel, and that's his primary job. But, for a lot of strange reasons – guys retiring, guys quitting a couple years ago, just a lot of weird things that occurred – their roster has kind of fallen off a little bit, but it is still a much better roster than some of these other teams that are not winning have. So that part of it, from my point of view, is done.
"At least identify the problem correctly. It's about players first, and I think they have the right guy in place to pick the players, but unfortunately for Trent, I think the choice of Tomsula hurt him, and currently right now Chip Kelly is not helping him either. All of a sudden you say, 'Look, we can't keep (Baalke), he's the one that picked the last two guys,' I guess is maybe what they're saying. I'm not sure overall. Nonetheless, that's a blemish that Trent is going to have to carry a little bit.
"But getting back to players, it's about players first. They do not have a bad roster. Obviously, they need a quarterback. They can be a .500 team in my opinion if they get a quarterback as near as next year I should say even. They've got a tough decision to make at the end because you're right, you don't want to lose your fans. But yet, they're going to lose a lot of money in the process, too. Where do you go? I'll say this – the team is making a hell of a lot of money, so maybe that isn't a factor."
You can
listen to the entire interview on
95.7 The Game.
Grant Cohn of the
Press Democrat has
the majority of the transcript from the interview on his
Inside the 49ers blog.
The 49ers hired Chip Kelly in January and he became the team's third head coach in as many years. On Sunday morning, it was reported by Jay Glazer on
FOX NFL Sunday that
Chip Kelly's job was safe and that he would return to the 49ers in 2017 no matter what transpired during the rest of the season.
Kelly has coached the 49ers to their 11th-straight loss, losing 26-6 to the Bears in Chicago on Sunday. Throughout the week, the 49ers had been favored by as much as 2.5 points. It was just the second time this season that the 49ers were favored in a game. Both ended in lopsided losses. Kelly has won just one game since taking over as head coach for the 49ers and just seven in his last two NFL seasons.
Baalke's job security remains up in the air. While many believe that he will likely be gone at the end of the season, Baalke continues to travel to college games in order to scout for the team. On November 9, Kelly was asked about Baalke continuing to travel so much for the team. "I'm confused," Kelly replied. "That's his job."
"I feel bad for the fans, I feel bad for a lot of people, the ownership in particular," Baalke said prior to the 49ers' November 27 matchup with the Miami Dolphins. "You know, they give us everything we need and I've said that. I've gone public with that. If we don't get it done, put it on me."
Former San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Tomsula has guided the Rhein Fire to a European League of Football championship. The 49ers named Tomsula their head coach in 2015 after the firing of Jim Harbaugh. His tenure lasted just one season as San Francisco went 5-11 that season.
Chip Kelly replaced Tomsula in 2016, who also lasted just one season. Kyle Shanahan has been the 49ers head coach since 2017.
Tomsula went on to serve as the defensive line coach for Washington (2017-19) and the Dallas Cowboys (2020) before being named the new Rhein Fire head coach last year. It was a reunion with the team he coached in 2006, when the Rhein Fire were a part of NFL Europe.
Tomsula guided his European team to a 7-5 record last year. This year, he went 12-0
Christian McCaffrey played 57 offensive snaps on Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams. The next closest running back was ... no one. No other running back took the field with the offense during the 30-23 win at SoFi Stadium.
That was not the plan going into the Week 2 game.
McCaffrey has now taken 115 snaps through two games this season. The only other running back who has lined up with the offense is Elijah Mitchell, who had 10 snaps in Week 1.
"Yeah, we definitely got to get Elijah in there more and do better with our rotation than we did yesterday," head coach Kyle Shanahan said via a conference call on Monday. "That wasn't the plan going in. It just ended up that way,
The San Francisco 49ers improved to 3-0 on the season after a 30-12 victory over the New York Giants on Thursday Night Football—dominating from the jump and never letting up a two-possession lead after a 17-6 advantage going into halftime.
However, that dominating performance doesn't mean that the 49ers played at their peak, at least according to Kyle Shanahan, who was pleased with his team's play on a tough Thursday night, but still pointed out a couple of improvements to look at going forward.
"Yeah, definitely, [I still think we have some work to do]," Shanahan said. "We did real good, time of possession, I think we had like 40 minutes. I thought our defense played real well. I thought they stepped it up. They started doing that in the second half last
The San Francisco 49ers cruised to a 30-23 win on Sunday, overcoming a tight first half to generate a double-digit lead until the last play of the game, improving to 2-0 on the season.
Now, the 49ers are getting ready to host their season opener, and it comes in primetime, as San Francisco will play the New York Giants on Thursday Night Football at Levi's Stadium this week.
The Giants have started their season with two very different games, losing 40-0 to the Dallas Cowboys in the opener before making a comeback in Week 2 against the Arizona Cardinals for a 31-28 win.
However, they may be without star running back Saquon Barkley, who suffered an ankle sprain in Week 2, potentially putting an even bigger onus on quarterback Daniel Jones against the
