The 49ers have made some mind boggling decisions as of late. From how they’ve handled the previous coaching staff to how they’re handling the construction of the new coaching staff. 49ers president Jed York seems to have his fingerprints on all the moves and will likely have them on all future moves regarding the coaching staff.
It all started when the 49ers decided to “mutually part ways” with former head coach Jim Harbaugh. Out of everything this team has done, parting ways with Harbaugh is the biggest head scratcher of them all. This decision was prompted due to Harbaugh’s abrasive personality and General Manager Trent Baalke wanting complete and total say on personnel decisions.
Once Harbaugh was let go, the coaching search began. Reports came out from the beginning that defensive line coach Jim Tomsula was a front runner as far as in-house options and then defensive coordinator Vic Fangio expressed interest in the head coaching job. The 49ers also brought in former Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Adam Gase in for an interview that lasted over eight and a half hours. After all of that, after two weeks of searching, the 49ers decided to promote Tomsula to head coach, bypassing his previous boss, Fangio, for the job. A big question after this news broke was if they were going to hire an in-house coach, why did they wait so long to do it and waste time filling other coaching needs.
Once Tomsula was promoted the team let all their assistants go except for running backs coach Tom Rathman. Obviously once Fangio was leapfrogged by Tomsula the writing was on the wall and he knew he would be gone. With a coaching staff consisting of just a head coach and a running backs coach, there is a lot of work to be done. One of the first moves was to bring in former Oakland Raiders defensive coordinator Jason Tarver as senior defensive assistant.
What responsibilities that job entails, I don’t think anyone is clear on right now but it’s extremely odd that they’re hiring defensive assistants before they hire the defensive coordinator. What this tells me is that both Tarver and the 49ers have a pretty good idea who they’re going to bring in for that job and that it will mesh well with Tarver’s philosophies. A leading candidate for the defensive coordinator job is 49ers tight end coach Eric Mangini. He is next in line to interview for the job and would certainly be a very solid hire.
Possibly their biggest hire will be who they bring in to be offensive coordinator. Who they bring in is anyone’s guess at this point. According to reports the leading candidate is University of Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin. Kiffin has had multiple jobs in the pros and in college and doesn’t exactly have the best track record in those places. He did a fine job at Alabama this past season but the NFC West isn’t the SEC. Another candidate was Adam Gase again. After he lost out on the head coaching job to Tomsula, the 49ers kept pursuing him for the coordinator role. That plan is out the window now because he was hired by the Chicago Bears. Another potential hire if Kiffin doesn’t get the job is Indianapolis Colts offensive assistant Rob Chudzinski. The Colts have blocked anyone from interviewing him but his contract runs out in a week and the Colts will have no say in the matter at that point.
The fact that they’re blocking him when his contract is up in a week tells me that they plan on keeping him around, possibly in a larger capacity. The Colts might possibly feel that current offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton will get a job elsewhere (possibly in San Francisco) and they want to keep Chudzinski in case Hamilton bolts.
At this point in time there is no way to know for sure what the 49ers’ plan actually is. But looking at the moves they’ve made so far, it seems like they want to surround Tomsula with assistants and coordinators who can really help him ease into the head coaching role. It’s going to be an enormous switch from defensive line coach to head coach and it could certainly get to be overwhelming.
I think the main reason they picked Tomsula was because they wanted a coach that was a great teacher and at the same time would be a “yes man” for the front office. They wanted someone who won't fight Baalke and York on every little thing. This is now Baalke’s team and he will be making all the football decisions moving forward. Their next hire should be an offensive coordinator and that hire could possibly be more important than their head coach hire. It’ll be interesting to see what else they decide to do as we move further into the offseason.