Paraag Marathe Thread

Where exactly does he now rank in the front office hierarchy?

Originally posted by blunt_probe:
I don't get why everyone hates him so much. Is it just because he was in the booth? We have a bunch of salary cap space, so I'm not complaining.

cuz when we havent sniffed the playoffs in 8 years you gotta blame everyone

Originally posted by English:

Originally posted by rubbersoul80:
This:

"The 49ers will have trouble recruiting new coaching and front office staff because of the acrimony created by team president Jed York and executive vice president Paraag Marathe, neither of whom has NFL experience and both of whom have tried to imitate Billy Beane’s “Money Ball” method to select new players for the Niners, with no success.

York is considering Marathe to be the team’s next general manager, which has alienated professional team managers and coaches from considering the team, according to sources. Recruiting new coaches will also impact the team’s ability to field a winning team as few players will want to join the unstable 49ers franchise."

San Francisco Sentinel Article


I'd say 70/30 that Paraag becomes the GM.

Total BS. What is the Sentinel? Not even worth debunking.

hahaha well that turned out to be 100% correct

Originally posted by StOnEy333:
Honestly, I think people don't like him because he's Indian (IIRC). People just don't think that an Indian should be running an American sports team, for whatever reason.

Where are all the racist Indian picks that should follow this post? Everytime race comes up regarding african americans, I have to watch some kid with big eyes blowing out a birthday cake or juggle buckets of chick.

Just calling out the double standard on this board.

Haters gon' hate.

Originally posted by nflguy49:

Btw: Promoting Paraag saved the Yorks $$$. Obviously a more experienced and qualified candidate for the position would have demanded more from the Yorks. Don't think for one second that the Yorks saving a buck or two didn't play a role in this promotion.

Very good point.

Yorks will spend money on player contract extensions and signings but will skimp on everything else. Makes sense since the star players keeps the fanbase happy, sells jerseys, and tickets. Paying big money on FO staff is not smart since they give little return on investment.

Googled Paraag Marathe and found this old article from 2008.



Paraag Marathe, MBA 99

Vice President of Football Operations
San Francisco 49ers
Santa Clara, Calif.


Every Sunday during football season, Paraag Marathe, BS 99, feels partially responsible for whether the San Francisco 49ers win or lose. He doesn't catch touchdown passes, kick field goals, or sack quarterbacks. But he signs the players who do.


As the team's vice president of football operations, Marathe negotiates player contracts and manages the salary cap — the limit a team can spend on players' salaries. He never imagined he could work for his favorite childhood football team until his sophomore year at Cal, when he saw the Tom Cruise movie Jerry Maguire.


"If you were not an athlete, I didn't know there was a career in sports. But Jerry Maguire let me see that there's the agent side of it and the front office side of it," he says. "That's when I realized I wanted to get into sports."


While studying at Haas, Marathe interned at IMG, a sports marketing and management firm. After graduating, he joined management consulting firm Bain & Co., who 49ers executives hired to help evaluate potential draft picks. Marathe impressed the Niners brass so much that they offered him a job, and he's steadily risen up the ranks ever since.


Marathe is credited with developing new statistical methods for evaluating and acquiring players and managing the team's salary cap, which in the early 2000s prevented the team from having funds to get or hold new players. He also has developed extensive databases on players and their salaries to better compare players with similar skill levels when he's negotiating a contract.


Marathe's goal, of course, is to help the team win again. "It doesn't feel like a job," he says. "It's like a hobby to me because I love it so much."


As Marathe enters his eighth year with the 49ers, he credits Haas for building the foundation for his success. "The level of intellect there makes you raise your own game," he says. "My ability to break down problems in a logical, rational way and go from Point A to Point B all started at Cal."

link

Originally posted by nflguy49:
Jan 23, 2005

http://articles.sfgate.com/2005-01-23/sports/17357970_1_ucla-head-stanford-business-school

Anyone following the 49ers' upheaval the last month ran across the name of Paraag Marathe. The assistant to the general manager's rapid ascension within the 49ers caught the notice of the rest of the league during the team's recent shakeup.

Who is this 28-year-old whiz kid? How did this man with an MBA from Stanford with little grounding in football become one of four people choosing the 49ers' next coach and establishing the direction of an organization adrift? Because nobody knew the answers to these questions, Marathe became a lightning rod for the general dismay with the organization among columnists, radio talk-show hosts and even the NFL set, who openly wondered what he was doing in the team's brain trust.

Marathe (pronounced mah-RAH-tay) became the unwitting victim of what many perceived as co-owner John York's NFL ignorance. It's a fact this business consultant from San Jose, via Cal and Stanford, impressed York after then- general manager Terry Donahue brought him in and was a big influence on the coaching search. But he is not expected to play a major role, as yet, in the organization.

Still, there was cause for wonder, when York didn't lean on someone such as personnel consultant Bill McPherson, who has been working for the 49ers for the past 24 years and has a 50-year association with football, to find and hire a head coach. Instead, York chose Marathe and assistant director of football administration Terry Tumey to assist him.

A new way to draft

Until this offseason, Marathe was known to those who followed the 49ers closely as a product of Donahue's search for a new way to analyze the draft.

Donahue, as he replaced Bill Walsh in 2000, realized he didn't possess Walsh's unparalleled draft-day instincts. He needed to find another way. One general manager who met with Donahue during this process said the former UCLA head coach was looking for a "magic book -- something that would tell him how to do this."

In searching for an answer, Donahue reverted to his business background, and in 2001 he contacted Bain & Company, a consulting firm that develops business strategies. Specifically, Donahue wanted Bain to update the old Gil Brandt system of assigning values to slots in the draft.

In the 1970s, Brandt, who was the Cowboys' personnel head, put a value on each draft pick, so on draft day the Cowboys could quickly reject or accept trades. For example, Brandt wanted to know if the 23rd overall selection was worth trading for the 57th and 58th choices.

Bain sent Marathe. His draft analysis was so incisive, Donahue hired him shortly after they met.

Marathe worked for the 49ers full-time in 2001 and then entered Stanford's business school the next year. While working on projects for the 49ers, Marathe earned his MBA.

"Stanford business school discourages students from having jobs," said IMG vice president Steve Tseng, who mentored Marathe when Marathe interned at the large sports-entertainment firm while an undergraduate at Cal. "He was working 45 hours a week."

York's golden boy

The industrious Marathe won the admiration of York, a licensed pathologist who admittedly relied heavily on his business background (running laboratories and race tracks) to steer his ownership of the 49ers.

"John is a scientist," a source close to York said on the condition of anonymity. "He loves proofs and statistical models."

In his projects, Marathe created graphs and charts that impressed York. After working with the 49ers for 18 months, Marathe befriended Jed York, John's eldest son. Seemingly, as the 23-year-old Jed became more visible at the 49ers' headquarters, eventually joining high-level meetings, so did Marathe.

Marathe's ascension coincided with the departure of Walsh and director of football operations John McVay, which could have been more than a coincidence. Privately, neither liked the statistical approach Donahue espoused. Marathe and his computer shot down Walsh and McVay's trade proposals during the 2003 draft. This didn't sit well with either man, who had built the 49ers' success partly on their impulses.

Marathe was asked by York to lead the head-coaching research, and his profile skyrocketed.

Marathe studied 120 coaches to determine where the most successful NFL coaches come from, and what makes them excel once they have the job. Along with other factors, Marathe discovered that coaches who were with successful teams and worked with winning coaches made the best future coach.

The 49ers' short list of candidates was determined partly by Marathe's criteria. The interview process included a meal with John and Jed York, and then a sit-down with John York, Marathe and Tumey. York ultimately determined the next man to lead the 49ers.

I remember this crap. Just what we need, corporate bullsh*t in the NFL. Just how many Super Bowl's have been won with statistical analysis? While I don't disagree with the value of statistics, they don't take into consideration any of the human elements of competition. A player's heart, character, or the elusive 'it' factor. And never mind a team riding a wave of emotion to win a game or going on a playoff run to win a championship. Trying to run a sports franchise like a stereotypical corporation equals failure. The Redskins have proved this point since Snyder bought the team. In a corporate environment, your competition isn't in your face trying to beat you throughout the workday.

Originally posted by StOnEy333:
Honestly, I think people don't like him because he's Indian (IIRC). People just don't think that an Indian should be running an American sports team, for whatever reason.

lol what?? Race has NOTHING to do with it. It's the fact that a nerdy stanford number cruncher is being given power in the football aspect. He should only be dealing with contracts and numbers, because that's what he's good at.

Originally posted by Niners99:

Originally posted by StOnEy333:
Honestly, I think people don't like him because he's Indian (IIRC). People just don't think that an Indian should be running an American sports team, for whatever reason.

lol what?? Race has NOTHING to do with it. It's the fact that a nerdy stanford number cruncher is being given power in the football aspect. He should only be dealing with contracts and numbers, because that's what he's good at.

Stoney, the guy is a kid with zero football experience. If he was so good to skyrocket up our management depth chart like this, don't you think other teams would have made an attempt, any attempt at all, to land this guy? Beuller? Beuller?

Chief Operating Officer is not a HOFO. He is an operations guy, business guy. They still need a veteran of the NFL exec wars to help educate Jed and Trent. Paraag is trusted by the Yorks and takes good care of their money, why not promote him? But, he does not belong in the HOFO position because he does not have contacts around the NFL that would help Trent and Jim.

Originally posted by dtg_9er:
Chief Operating Officer is not a HOFO. He is an operations guy, business guy. They still need a veteran of the NFL exec wars to help educate Jed and Trent. Paraag is trusted by the Yorks and takes good care of their money, why not promote him? But, he does not belong in the HOFO position because he does not have contacts around the NFL that would help Trent and Jim.

Yep, biz ops. I don't have a problem with that as long as they leave the draft to Baalke and Harbaugh.

Originally posted by Niners99:

Originally posted by StOnEy333:
Honestly, I think people don't like him because he's Indian (IIRC). People just don't think that an Indian should be running an American sports team, for whatever reason.

lol what?? Race has NOTHING to do with it. It's the fact that a nerdy stanford number cruncher is being given power in the football aspect. He should only be dealing with contracts and numbers, because that's what he's good at.

this....nothing racist about it

Originally posted by Shaj:

Originally posted by Niners99:

Originally posted by StOnEy333:
Honestly, I think people don't like him because he's Indian (IIRC). People just don't think that an Indian should be running an American sports team, for whatever reason.

lol what?? Race has NOTHING to do with it. It's the fact that a nerdy stanford number cruncher is being given power in the football aspect. He should only be dealing with contracts and numbers, because that's what he's good at.

Stoney, the guy is a kid with zero football experience. If he was so good to skyrocket up our management depth chart like this, don't you think other teams would have made an attempt, any attempt at all, to land this guy? Beuller? Beuller?

Only a guy who has played football would be able to do his job, right? Um, no actually. I dont see what the problem is. When you actually hear about what he has done, it always seems very positive.

So exactly what is the problem, quoting examples? Him being a nerdy Stanford product isnt really a valid argument.

Originally posted by English:

Originally posted by Shaj:

Originally posted by Niners99:

Originally posted by StOnEy333:
Honestly, I think people don't like him because he's Indian (IIRC). People just don't think that an Indian should be running an American sports team, for whatever reason.

lol what?? Race has NOTHING to do with it. It's the fact that a nerdy stanford number cruncher is being given power in the football aspect. He should only be dealing with contracts and numbers, because that's what he's good at.

Stoney, the guy is a kid with zero football experience. If he was so good to skyrocket up our management depth chart like this, don't you think other teams would have made an attempt, any attempt at all, to land this guy? Beuller? Beuller?

Only a guy who has played football would be able to do his job, right? Um, no actually. I dont see what the problem is. When you actually hear about what he has done, it always seems very positive.

So exactly what is the problem, quoting examples? Him being a nerdy Stanford product isnt really a valid argument.

I think it all stems from when he had constructed a "software" program that graded players and trades for the draft. His program overruled Walsh and McVay. Many haven't forgotten about that.