Since the approval rating of the San Francisco 49ers front office began to falter with the firing of Jim Harbaugh in late 2014, a variety of different names have been thrown out as ideal candidates to steer the organization back on course.
Unsurprisingly, many have suggested former 49ers Hall-of-Fame quarterback Steve Young as the person best equipped to get the job done.
Retired offensive lineman Derrick Deese was a teammate of Young’s for eight years, and told Kevin Lynch on Wednesday that Young’s desire to win and ability to politic, makes him the ideal candidate for team president.
“I think it’s obvious it would be Steve Young,” Deese said. “You take a guy like that who knows the business, wears his heart on his sleeve, wants to win, knows how to win, and is very open-minded. Really doesn’t care about the red tape of the business, he just knows how to win. He’s a guy that has always been a winner. So when you look at it from that standpoint, and what he was able to do, and the way he was able to play, the way he was able to manage teams inside the locker room himself, there’s no other guy that would fit better.”
Though many have discussed Young as a possible replacement for general manager Trent Baalke, Deese feels that Young would better serve the organization as a liaison between the locker room and front office. Something former 49er executives Carmen Policy and John McVay did so well during San Francisco’s glory years.
“What the Niners are really missing – they’re missing their Carmen Policy and John McVay working together,” Deese said. “I think Steve is a guy that would be one of those guys, and he definitely would know the other guy to work alongside him. That’s where you’re having a problem….talking about upper management and the guys in the locker room, and trying to get them to work together as one. To have those people that are able to be the bridges, and they don’t really have that. They don’t have a guy who’s the bridge between ownership and the locker room, and even between general managers and the head coach and the coaching staff.”
“I think if you got a guy like that in there, a guy that the owner can say okay look, ‘I may be a little upset about something, but let me talk to my guy.’ His guy knows both sides and so he politics it to know ‘okay this is what needs to come out of this, how do I get it.’ He tells the owner one thing, he says maybe to the GM and the head coach another thing, to make it all work together.
“That’s how it works, it’s like a machine. Some of the parts may not like each other, but as long as they’re working together, the product’s going to be very good when it comes out.”
Listen to the full interview below
