While 49ers fans may simply know him as the "salary cap guy," Rapoport shared some information about the perception of Marathe around the league. Rapaport was asked if Marathe was equipped to help lead the search.
Rapoport started by saying that he understands that there is a lot of distrust in York and Marathe. "Nationally, it's very different," Rapoport said. "Whenever the 49ers make a deal, I get text about it or calls about it just because they always do very interesting deals. This [Colin] Kaepernick one this year, I thought, was very, very smart – allowing him to opt out, taking away the guaranteed money. It was a win-win and really smart and they do deals early. I'm not sure, from a business sense, if there's any organization run better.
"Paraag is a really respected name in the NFL, which is why it's so interesting to me locally that it is so different. And I'm not quite sure how that happened. I guess probably because the wins have not come and everyone sort of looks to the two faces that are kind of out there. But I'll just say as far as nationally (and) around the league, from the candidates I talked to – I try to talk to all of them – to the other GMs, I know Paraag is considered a very respected person."
Rapoport continued, "The Niners are very, very smart with how they do business and the only reason I even knew who Paraag was, was because I had other GMs reach out to me and ask me about, 'Hey, I just heard the Niners did this deal. Can you find out about it?' Like the Kaepernick deal for instance, which turned out to be very smart for the organization, obviously. It sort of started there and I had to be like, 'Well, who actually is this guy that everyone is asking me about?' Because locally he's on the radar now but two years ago he wasn't."
The entire interview is definitely worth listening to. You can listen to the entire interview on KNBR 680.
Marathe has been with the 49ers for 16 years. He is the team's chief contract negotiator, salary cap architect and oversees the team's football analytics department.
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