Beat writer Grant Cohn of the Press Democrat joined Zak and Guru on 95.7 The Game to discuss all things San Francisco 49ers as the team heads into their final preseason game and gets ready for the regular season.
Of course, he discussed the whole situation surrounding 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. However, one of the more interesting items that he discussed was a way for San Francisco to quickly turn around the roster and the team. It involves the firing of their general manager, Trent Baalke.
"It almost feels like they're tanking," said Cohn. "Like they know that they don't have the roster and they know that they don't have the quarterback. And it's hard to get a quarterback so why don't they just lose as many games as possible this year and put themselves in position to get the best quarterback in the draft next year – Watson, the kid from Clemson.
"To get him, and then free agent wide receivers will want to sign here. No free agent wide receiver is going to want to sign here if Gabbert's the quarterback. But if you draft a good quarterback, then you can use all this $50 million cap space to sign the best receivers possible and then you actually have a team. So this could be a quick turnaround if they lose enough this year."
Regarding Baalke, Cohn believes that the team could turn things around quickly without him at the helm of the roster. "The way I think that it's going to happen this year is that Kelly is sort of setting Baalke up to get fired," said Cohn. "If they lose a lot of games, it's Baalke's fault. It's not Kelly's fault. Kelly didn't pick these players.
"So I think Baalke's neck is on the line and if and when they lose all of the games that we expect them to lose, because they don't have a quarterback or wide receivers ... or a defense really, then Baalke's going to be held responsible. I think that's clear. They promoted Tom Gamble. Tom Gamble's going to take Baalke's job in a few months unless a miracle happens."
Cohn went on to say that with Baalke out of the picture and a "real" general manager in place that can help bring in players that fit Chip Kelly's system, then the team could head in the right direction. "If they lose enough games this year and get Baalke out of the equation, they could have a quick turnaround – theoretically," said Cohn.
