Hire a GM now?

Originally posted by SybErkRimInAL:

Originally posted by Wodwo:

Originally posted by SybErkRimInAL:
noob

Yeah... it seems that my inexperience at starting threads cause epic fail.

TLDR

Yes?

just joking man. i hate when people pick on "noobs."

Hehe... thanks. I didn't take offense.

I knew there had to be at least one "noob" post.

I really was expecting the "TLDR", too. I kinda got one... he just didn't admit it.

Interwebs are fun. Serious fun.

Originally posted by mayo49:
I think Jed is comfortable with Baalke, I don't think he'll make a GM hire.

Probably right.

I was thinking more on the hypothetical.

Well, more like a pipe dream.

Originally posted by fly15:
are you an author or something??

Yes.

Originally posted by Wodwo:

-- A lot of stuff --

1. Who is available. You're right, I missed this. In my defense it was buried between multiple preambles and tangents. In any case, I did address the question indirectly.
As for broadcasters, I assume they have contracts. In any case, to my knowledge it has never happened before with a broadcaster, so we can conclude that it's probably not an option. As for people who have taken time off, sure, they exist, but "big name/talent" people who are taking time off don't want mid-season jobs. Why would they? Their bargaining power is MUCH higher during the offseason when people are competing for their services.


2. The several sentences in which you gave your reasoning -- I did see these. I didn't think they made sense given the parameters that we've already been discussing (I thought my post gave a multitude of satisfactory answers that outweighed answering these smaller questions). In any case, I'll go through them.

You want:

* An experienced football coach (who goes unnamed but is currently unemployed and does not have enough options to be better off waiting for the offseason) to become our GM (despite presumably not having any experience as a GM), but you don't know who this person is. Yeah, okay. I got it, but it's preposterous.

* This dream person who probably doesn't exist and will magically be successful in a role he previously hasn't inhabited to give us a "head start" on planning for next season. How? Why? Nobody knows what's happening next year. The entire NFL is essentially on hold until the CBA is worked out. What exactly will this person be doing that his subordinates (who you want to keep) can't be doing right now? If he is going to be deciding which players to keep and which players to target, don't you think he might want to know who our coach will be and which players fit the schemes we'll be using? Oh yeah, he absolutely needs to know that, but he can't, because he can't hire a coach until the offseason. So assuming we can find this fantasy person, what exactly is he going to be doing again?

* A new GM to make the decisions in the final third of this season so Jed York can't. Which decisions? You have an untested assumption running throughout your post that Jed York is a young Al Davis when we have absolutely no evidence of this whatsoever. I chose to ignore it because it's baseless. I've addressed it now. The assumption might make you feel better about our failures, but it's baseless.

* A new GM to hire the new coach. It's all just silly by this point. This former head coach who hasn't been a GM and is currently out of football will be hiring our new head coach. What? You really think having this person installed already would increase our chances with any of the "big ticket" coaches? You can instantly cross every single big name coach off the list (Gruden, Cower, Harbaugh, et al.) as well as the big name GMs (Holmgren) as none of them are going to cede power to this person. They ALL have more bargaining power than to become a part of this mess. The big name coaches probably want total control, and at the VERY LEAST they'll want their input on how the front office is setup, not the other way around.

What you're proposing is quite simply not how this works, and for good reason, I might add.

In any case, the purpose of a thread is to create conversation, which this thread has.

Congrats (non smart @ss) on the first post.

[ Edited by PopeyeJonesing on Nov 24, 2010 at 11:38:43 ]

Keep Trent Baalke in the scouting role. Other than that, I don't really care, as long as we get Gruden or Harbaugh.

Originally posted by Niner2theCore:
I'd be all up for bringing a GM now, it'd give him some time to evaluate the coaching staff and players and try to pin point and fix the cause of the major failure that this season has become. But as many have pointed out, it's all up to Jed and his willingness to make changes to his power structure.

If we were to pick someone who is not currently working for any team, I've read somewhere, can't remember where... Michael Lombardi could be an interesting option. I've put some thought on that and it seemes like he's well known and respected around the leage. He works now for the NFL Network as an insider, which means he has good connections around the NFL and with Agents. I also read that he has ties with Jim Harbaugh. I don't recalled if he worked with Gruden in Oakland too.

Any thoughts?

Yeah, the way Jed set himself up really makes it look unlikely. Like, winning the lottery while being struck by lightning.

I only did a little research on Michael Lombardi. I like all the points you make about him and his connections are good ones. It's just tough for me to see him being the kind of guy I envision in my (acid trip) scenario. Working for Al Davis for all those years just screams "Yes Man" to me. In the fantasy I was having, it'd be a guy who could get things done the way he wants, while making Jed happy and teaching him to football.

Ah, the dreams of the desperate. Le sigh.

Originally posted by rk1642:
I totally agree we should hire a GM right now.

Thanks for the support. It helps me feel a little less stupid for day dreaming.

Originally posted by susweel:
The only problem I see with hiring a Gm now would be that I dont know how you could land a big name coach if you already have GM in place. The new is gonna want total control of the roster and you cant really do that if you have a GM. Best bet would be to wait out the season and hire your coach ask him if he has a guy who he would like to bring in to control the personnel side.

this

Originally posted by global_nomad:
Right now makes no sense for 2 reasons.

#1: coaches like Gruden will only come here if they can bring in their own personell guy.

#2: Jed is cheap. If he can get away with having a guy like Balkke complete GM duties w/o paying him a GM salary he is going to continue to do that.

Both of your points are good ones. Really good ones.

Here's my day dreamy response:

1) I was thinking we'd end up hiring a lower profile head coach. Somebody who was an innovative offensive thinker, but not really a huge blob on the radar. It'd be the GM who would help mold the coach.

2) This kills the idea outright. Ahhh.... The walls are melting and there are bugs crawling under my skin! Purple sounds rad, though. That kangaroo just ate my coffee table... oooohhhh bad trip, man. Why'd you have to do that to me?

Originally posted by amir_tn80:
Hiring a football executive and a GM and letting them hire the head coach makes perfect sense. So this organization will not do anything close to that. They will stick to this cheap incompetent front office model. The Yorks will make the next coaching hire if they fire Singletary. The naive fans will hang off the new coach's nuts. After 2 years of losing and god awful football they will call for his head. This pattern has been repeating way too many times.

This is so true... you've echoed my words almost exactly from MadDog's "The Season Is Pointless" thread. What a total drag.

At least I get to watch the drama.

Originally posted by verb1der:

Wodwo, I think it ultimately comes down to Jed's ego, I remember him saying he wants to be like his uncle Eddie, I know nothing of Eddie's beginnings, but I assume Jed's taking the same path.

But I agree, hiring an experienced and proven GM can potentially turn things around, but then that GM will get all the props, Jed will not.

Yeah, that's the kiss of death... again. Can't a man dream?

I'm glad you agree, though. It's too bad we have no control over the situation. Poop.

Originally posted by 49erFaithful6:


Having a GM sit around and watch film for six weeks to get a headstart on the offseason is not necessary not to mention difficult. Consider that we don't know what offense or defense we will be running next year, or who our QB will be, etc.

I do agree with the OP in that the front office needs a total overhaul including bringing in a respected GM, just think it should be in the offseason.

It's mostly my paranoia about the CBA situation that gave me the idea. I was trying to think of a way to set up a structure and be fully prepared for the many surprises it might throw at us. I was thinking the GM could look at the roster and start to plan ahead. Take a lot of time to prepare for different scenarios. Scout out coaching talent that might fit our personnel, but might be off the radar a bit. Kind of a football Guru, y'know? Maybe teach Jed something along the way.

Just wanted to see if anybody knew of a guy who could do all that and was available now. Basically just daydreaming because of the crap situation we're in.

I'm glad you agree about the front office. I don't mind if it's in the offseason, even. I'd be just as happy.

Originally posted by NinerGM:
Although Baalke is a great personnel guy, he's not a true GM. VP of PP isn't the "rudder of the organization." Baalke is essentially head of both pro and college scouting teams for the 49ers and works to bring those guys in. He doesn't even have final say over who's signed. That's not a GM, but exactly what he is - VP of PP. This is a holdover from the Nolan-era structure where the HC was given GM powers and McCloughan was essentially scout-in-chief, much like Baalke is now.

The downside to a weak GM is if the HC isn't making good decisions - everything from players to coaches to the development of both. True NFL GMs can call coaches on the carpet and ask them mid-season "WTF are you doing?" Owners hold the GMs accountable for the organization as a whole and leave the hire/fire of the coach to the GM. This structure has changed somewhat with coaches having more or equal power to "GMs". However, we are finding coaches without the credentials or experience to hold that much power often fail miserably.

If the 49ers can hire a GM now, it would be a mistake and would immediately derail the little bit of authority/structure that's left. Like another poster said, if the 49ers are looking at a Super Coach, he may want to bring in his own VP of PP, rebuild both coaching and scouting staffs. Even if they want to set up a traditional structure it would still do damage to the current one.

Jed should be doing his due diligence now on 1) whether or not he, Praag and Lal can handle a super-coach, and 2) who's really available - put out feelers for coaches and do it discreetly, something McCloughan was absolutely terrible at doing.

Yeah, that was kinda my point about Baalke. He's the guy the media and many fans would point to as the GM, but he's not.

The problem with the structure is that Jed is making the decisions. Jed isn't a football guy. That's why I want a Super GM (had to steal your "Super Coach", was awesome) in charge instead. I want Jed to take a step back and let an experienced football guy make the big decisions... and maybe learn something.

Basically, I want to derail the authority... Jed. Bring in a Super GM and just give him Jed's power. Nothing else really needs to be changed this season. Just have the guy get to know everyone and figure out what's good and what's bad before we hit the offseason, where we enter the Twilight Zone.

Like I said before, I want a Super GM, not a Super Coach. I think as long as Jed is making the decisions, we'll just keep continuing the same cycle we have since the Yorks took over. I have no faith in the front office. I think change needs to start at the top, the common denominator.

Does that make any sense?

Originally posted by susweel:
The only problem I see with hiring a Gm now would be that I dont know how you could land a big name coach if you already have GM in place. The new is gonna want total control of the roster and you cant really do that if you have a GM. Best bet would be to wait out the season and hire your coach ask him if he has a guy who he would like to bring in to control the personnel side.

I know that a lot of people want to land a big name coach. I don't know if that's going to happen with the current front office. If it does, I think it will end up in a battle of Ego's between Jed and the Head Coach.

If we start at the top and bring in a savvy GM, he can bring in a small name Head Coach and give him support. Problem is, it has to be a really savvy GM. I don't know if we can find one. That's why I asked if anyone could think of somebody.

I'm just having an out of the box day dream. It's unlikely to happen, but I think it might work.

Originally posted by fropwns: