NFL insider Ian Rapoport may be
baffled by the difference in the national and local opinion regarding Paraag Marathe, but Matt Barrows of the
Sacramento Bee clearly is not.
Barrows joined "Murph & Mac" on
KNBR 680 this morning to touched on the topic of Marathe and the frustrations surrounding the 49ers executive.
Barrows was asked what he thinks of Rapoport saying that Marathe is highly respected around the NFL. "With what Paraag does, the contract, you know, he's their top contract negotiator and he's their salary cap guru," Barrows said. "In those realms, he's great. I don't think there's any complaint about that. Remember, the 49ers of yesteryear, when you covered them Murph, had all sorts of salary cap issues and they were bumping against the cap and they had to cut guys left and right. That was that year when they had to get rid of [Terrell Owens] and Jeff Garcia and Garrison Hearst and Derrick Deese all in one fell swoop. Once Paraag took over, those issues went away.
"The issue with Paraag among coaches and GMs is when he starts to sit in on the football meetings and they are like, 'Why is the non-football guy part of this meeting?' And apparently, that was an issue for Chip Kelly this year as well if you read that really good
Yahoo! Sports report that came out yesterday.
"If Paraag is sticking to the things that he's good at, I don't think there's any issue with him. The issues have come up in the past when he's dabbling with football-related matters."
You can
listen to the entire interview on
KNBR 680.
It would seem that Marathe will be "dabbling with the football-related matters" when it comes to finding both a new head coach and general manager. "Paraag will be with me in the interviews," 49ers CEO Jed York said on Monday. "We've certainly done research together and will be moving forward."
The final decision will be York's – whether or not the team CEO is qualified enough to make such a decision. "Ultimately, the decision will rest with me," a confident York said.
Charles Robinson's Yahoo! Sports article on Tuesday explained the obstacles that ex-49ers head coach Chip Kelly had to endure while trying to jump start the franchise. "It meant working for an impetuous and involved owner in York; sitting in football meetings with head of football operations Paraag Marathe, a numbers guy whose influence over ownership was unparalleled; and navigating his way alongside Baalke, who – fairly or not – had been tagged by some in the personnel community as untrustworthy," wrote Robinson.
Nobody could figure out what San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan was challenging. Early in the second half of his team's embarrassing 30-18 home loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday night, the coach threw his red flag onto the field. Shanahan was apparently challenging the play that saw Colts running back Jonathan Taylor fumbling the football.
That left everyone scratching their heads.
Anyone with access to the replays could quickly tell Shanahan that Indianapolis clearly recovered the football. However, the coach didn't have access to the replays and couldn't tell what was happening from his sideline view. To make matters worse, he couldn't get a hold of anyone who did have access to the replay.
"Yeah, that was a mess-up by us,"
Cris Collinsworth hasn't given up on the San Francisco 49ers. The team may be entering Week 7 with a 2-3 record and riding a three-game losing streak, but the NBC announcer knows things can turn around quickly for Kyle Shanahan's squad.
Collinsworth will be calling the game on Sunday night between the 49ers and Indianapolis Colts. He was in Santa Clara this week to watch practice. Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area pulled him aside to talk about the Bay Area team, which has struggled to live up to its potential.
"They're close," Collinsworth responded when asked how he views the 49ers. "I think that's the only way you can say it, is there's some teams that you look at them, and you go, 'OK, they're definitely not making the playoffs.' I mean, we're already to
