San Francisco 49ers play by play announcer Ted Robinson joined Murph & Mac on KNBR 680 this morning to discuss, among other things, the team following their second victory of the season. One of the topics brought up were the weekly pre-game interviews that Robinson does with 49ers general manager Trent Baalke.
On Saturday, prior to the 49ers' game against the Rams in Los Angeles, Baalke touched on the fact that the team has not addressed the quarterback position, despite that being a glaring need for multiple seasons now. "Hindsight is always 20-20," Baalke said – as transcribed by Kevin Jones of KNBR. "And certainly, looking back on it, there were some opportunities for us to make some decisions to add a quarterback. Whether that be out of the draft or free agency, or a player that was on the street that had left his team. We've had opportunities, we've chosen not to, and that points directly to me. That's a decision that I made at the time — right, wrong or indifferent, (we) can't look back now."
Robinson was asked if Baalke seems like he knows what the situation is. The general manager is very much on the hot seat and is the leading candidate to be fired at the end of the season, which finishes up on Sunday when the 49ers host the Seattle Seahawks.
"Trent understands," Robinson said. "And I do know him decently enough and I like him personally so this is a tough one because you ask separate personal from professional. So if I can try to do that, professionally, he gets it. He understands exactly where this situation is and I think he's prepared for whatever decision ownership makes – whichever decision they make. It's probably a two-choice one and he's right either way.
"I like this about Trent. He's a standup guy and that's why I asked him the question. He didn't know I was going to ask him Saturday about quarterback. When you look at the Goff situation, you see how a franchise put it all in to draft a quarterback. You haven't, in your 10 years as GM, basically, that's not a path you took. And even in the second or third rounds in the last five years, no quarterbacks.
"And he admitted, he said, 'Yeah,' that's something that he's going to look back on, whenever that time is, and question. That's probably a position that he should have addressed. And there's always elements to those things and that's one of the areas where Trent is also a standup guy about. He'll take the fall, but remember the draft picks are always, even though they are ultimately his call, there's always a collaboration. The previous coaches here were also the ones, once Kaepernick took over, there wasn't a desire from the coaches to have another quarterback in here. That's part of the equation and no one wants to talk about that, but it's true.
"So, Trent takes the fall and takes the heat and it's his job. It goes with it."
Matt Maiocco of CSN Bay Area has recently reported that, should Baalke be fired, the most likely landing spot for him would be with the Denver Broncos – perhaps as the Director of College Scouting.
You can listen to the entire interview on KNBR 680.