With the 49ers collecting just seven combined wins over the last two seasons, and CEO Jed York announcing that he’ll be speaking to the media next week, it’s pretty safe bet that general manager Trent Baalke’s job is in jeopardy.
49ers beat writer Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee believes that Baalke will be axed shortly after the final whistle of the season finale against the Seahawks on Sunday. He also believes that when it comes to looking for Baalke’s replacement, York may look to poach from their division rival.
“(Seattle Co-Director of Player Personnel) Trent Kirchner is a guy who’s been interviewed by a number of teams the last two years,” Barrows told Kevin Lynch on KNBR Thursday. “He’s the number two guy to John Schneider and to me, I know that 49ers fans don’t want to hear this, but if there’s a team you want to emulate as far as personnel and just being able to do the right things with very little – cause they’re always picking so late in the first round – it’s the Seattle Seahawks.”
“They’ve got a great formula; they’ve got a great cohesion between coaching staff and front office there. Their program is tried and true, and so if you’re able to bring something similar with Kirchner, and you’re robbing your division rival at the same time, maybe that’s it.”
Kirchner has been in the Seahawks’ personnel department since 2010, and has been specifically credited by Schneider for facilitating the free agent acquisitions of Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril, Tony McDaniel over the last few seasons.
Interestingly, Barrow’s believes that bringing on Kirchner could put head coach Chip Kelly’s job at risk, as Kirchner may want to bring along some of his colleagues to fill out the coaching staff.
“It might be (Seattle offensive coordinator Darrell) Bevel, it might be (assistant head coach) Tom Cable that he likes,” Barrows said. “Gus Bradley, I don’t think is gonna be a head coach anytime soon, but he could be a defensive coordinator. There’s a lot of different offshoots from that as well, given how good the Seahawks have been and how many guys are attached to that program.”
Barrows feels that Kirchner is a more likely candidate than Packers Director-Football Operations Eliot Wolf, whose name has been kicked around as one of the 49ers’ primary targets. Wolf is the son of former Packers GM Ron Wolf.
“You look at this Ron Woolf coaching tree, and there are a lot of offshoots from that, including his son Eliot Wolf,” Barrows said. “As I wrote today, it seems like Eliot Wolf is going to succeed Ted Thompson at some point. That’s what all the Green Bay writers have been writing for the last few years. Thompson is starting to reach an age where these guys tend to retire, so he may not be able to be pried loose from Green Bay.”
Listen to the full interview below.
