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00:00I don't know if this is leading down the road of Robert Sala or not, but there was some
00:08NFL stuff earlier today, similar to when the Suns start moving first round draft picks
00:14around and everyone goes, oh, this is a precursor to Jimmy Butler.
00:18I wonder this too.
00:20There had been talk for weeks that the Jags were going to have a hard time finding a high
00:27level head coach because they were hanging on to Trent Baalke as their GM.
00:33And then they went through the coaching interview process.
00:38And so it was no surprise when they came out the other side and they're like, we still
00:41don't have a head coach.
00:44And Trent Baalke is still here.
00:45You got to Google it.
00:46Yeah.
00:47So then what'd they do today?
00:48And they're like, we changed our mind.
00:50We're firing Trent Baalke.
00:52Right.
00:53What does that mean that Robert Sala is about to take the Jags job?
01:00And if it does, what does that mean for the 49ers and the defensive coordinator position,
01:06which remains open?
01:07Well, to me, it means that the 49ers are left holding the bag.
01:11And the fact that, you know, the Jags are doing this as Cohen had withdrawn his name
01:18from the head coaching job.
01:20So when you have a coordinator who has gone through one interview and then he's getting
01:25ready for his second interview and he says, nah, I'm good.
01:28I don't want a second interview.
01:29That tells me that there's something broken in Jacksonville.
01:31And so now they may or may not have fixed it by ousting the GM, which tells me that
01:38all of the candidates are back in there and maybe Cohen wants to get back in and he wants
01:43a second interview.
01:44It might be too late.
01:46It also tells me that if you're Robert Sala, that might now be a job that's more attractive
01:51to you.
01:52And my whole thing is I look at the Niners and we heard Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch
01:57right away in their exit press conference talk about, well, you know, the one advantage
02:01of being out early is you have an extra month to go into the offseason and sort these things
02:07out.
02:08You need a new defensive coordinator.
02:10You fired another one after one year.
02:12You need a new special teams coordinator.
02:14You fired a guy who was very well accomplished but had the worst unit in football.
02:21And so, yeah, you had a month headstart and here we are almost three weeks into that month
02:27headstart and to my eye, you've done nothing.
02:30You haven't conducted interviews, that many interviews that we've seen, you haven't hired
02:35anyone.
02:36No.
02:37And it feels to me like you're like waiting there with a candle burning in your window
02:41for Robert Sala to come home riding on horseback.
02:45And if he doesn't, then what do we have?
02:47Niners?
02:48Like to me, this falls into the trap that we often do, which is his fans and media.
02:53If we don't hear anything, that means nothing's happening.
02:57And Mike, it's been disproven over and over and over again.
03:00And I can't tell you that you're wrong because I don't know who's being interviewed.
03:05But like, are you suggesting that the San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator job,
03:13like that group is so dumb that they're going to put their chip in Robert Sala's circle,
03:22realizing all along that if he chooses a head coaching job, they will not have seen that
03:29coming.
03:30Like, oh my God.
03:31And we're left with no one.
03:32Or is it possible that they do have their plan B, their plan C, their plan D laid out?
03:40They've had discussions about this, and we have no idea where that's going to go.
03:44And secondarily, I know where a lot of people's mind goes, oh, we're going to end up with
03:48Brandon Staley.
03:50What kind of evidence do you have that that's not a good thing?
03:53He's been a defensive coordinator in the league before, and it went swimmingly well.
03:57Did it not?
03:58Well, he was in the building last year.
04:00He was, but he was not the coordinator.
04:02But what was he?
04:03I don't know.
04:04I can't give you an educated answer on that.
04:05I do know this.
04:06He's a defensive guy who was in the building, and your defense got appreciably worse.
04:12So was he just standing there on a hands-off basis with Sorenson?
04:18Like you got brought in for a reason.
04:21Did you get brought in just because you needed a place to be and it was cold outside and
04:26you needed a warm office to sit in?
04:27What did he do?
04:28I don't know.
04:29Again, I can't give you an educated answer on what he did.
04:33I can give you an educated answer on what he didn't do.
04:35Here's what I do know.
04:36I don't want you to sound hypocritical with the Kyle Shanahan-Atlanta Falcons take.
04:41I'm not blaming somebody for the defense when they weren't the defensive coordinator.
04:46I'm not blaming him either.
04:48I'm just asking what he did.
04:51I don't know.
04:52He coached.
04:53Like, why did he get brought in?
04:54He got brought in for a reason.
04:56They liked him.
04:57Okay.
04:58I don't know.
05:00Yes.
05:01And I just wonder what he did.
05:02They liked his defensive mind.
05:03Well, whatever his defensive mind was and whatever he contributed, their defense was
05:08worse than it was the year before.
05:10But we cannot just start running around, in my opinion, attaching that to everybody in
05:15the building.
05:16Like, if we've all had nuanced conversations all year where we point to things like injury
05:22and family tragedies and whatever.
05:25Fine.
05:26But all those things.
05:27Like, for instance, you're not going to argue now that Kyle Shanahan's a crappy offensive
05:32coach, are you?
05:33No.
05:34Well, he was running the offense last year.
05:35This is what I will argue.
05:37If you loved Brandon Staley and you fired Nick Sorensen, then you would have immediately
05:43elevated Brandon Staley to that job.
05:45Maybe they love him, but they love Robert Solomon.
05:47Well, and if you...
05:48Or they want to wait and see if they...
05:49Like, again, I don't know.
05:50And if Brandon Staley is, like, your first runner-up, then so be it.
05:54But I know that Jeff Olbrich, a guy who's got Niner ties, he got a D.C. job elsewhere.
05:59Right.
06:00A former head coach.
06:01I don't even...
06:02Who got hired as a D.C. somewhere else.
06:03Right.
06:04But we put that...
06:05Because of past ties, we put that in Kyle Shanahan's head.
06:08I never heard that they wanted Jeff Olbrich.
06:10I know he used to play for the Niners, and he was coaching on Salah's staff.
06:15So people go, oh, Jeff, I have no idea if Kyle Shanahan thought that was viable.
06:19Well, I don't know what Kyle Shanahan wants.
06:21All I can look at...
06:22He hasn't told us.
06:23He has a track record.
06:24Yeah.
06:25And his track record is, going backward, you hire a guy who's never been a coordinator,
06:29and it didn't work out.
06:30And the year before, you hired a guy who had only been a coordinator for the most part.
06:34Right.
06:35He'd been a head coach.
06:36And it didn't work out.
06:37So...
06:38And the year before that, they elevated someone from within who had never been a coordinator.
06:41He was awesome balls and is now a head coach...
06:44Right.
06:45...who goes to the playoffs every year.
06:46So since then...
06:47So like...
06:48...you had a guy who didn't fit, and you crushed him...
06:50Right.
06:52...and then you hired from within a guy who was unqualified, and this guy was not fired.
06:58He's been reassigned.
06:59What's Nick Sorensen's new job?
07:01Anyone?
07:02It hasn't been...
07:03Right.
07:04...defined yet.
07:05He might be the special teams coordinator.
07:06I would hope not.
07:07Well, I don't know that.
07:08See, like...
07:09I just...
07:10To me, Mark, this is my point.
07:11That's a totally different gig.
07:12My point is this.
07:13You talked about, in your exit interviews, how great it would be to have an extra month
07:18because you're not in the Super Bowl.
07:20And I look at a team that has done nothing in that month.
07:23And I...
07:24You've made no hire.
07:25I would...
07:26Yes.
07:27See, now they've made no hire.
07:28That's different than doing nothing.
07:29I would argue that, again, I can't tell you you're wrong.
07:33I can tell you, in my opinion, you're jumping to conclusions that simply because they have
07:38not named someone, that means they did not make use of their time.
07:43I don't think they went on vacation.
07:45I don't think they instead started a GoFundMe for TikTok.
07:50I think they've been working on this.
07:53And I don't know what the reasons are.
07:55And maybe they are waiting for Robert Sala.
07:58And maybe that's what they're going to get.
08:01And maybe Robert Sala is going to get a head coaching job.
08:04And maybe they've decided that, whether it's Brandon Staley or hell, it could be Pete Carroll,
08:10who they think is their second pick.
08:12And maybe they'll end up there.
08:14And the last thing I'd argue is most fans don't give two rips who anybody's coordinator
08:18is until we get to the idea of did it work or not.
08:21Right.
08:22They do care.
08:23No, they don't.
08:24Because you're coming off of back-to-back coordinators that didn't work.
08:27But there's one thing...
08:28It does matter.
08:29Of course it matters.
08:30That's not what I said.
08:31They don't...
08:32You're not going to know at the press conference if it worked or not.
08:34Hell, they could hire Robert Sala and that could not work.
08:37Right.
08:38Or they could, you know, re-elevate Nick Sorensen and we could...
08:41They need better players.
08:42Yeah, they need to have a coordinator who actually gets the defense, the players that
08:46you do have, to play better.
08:48All I'm saying is that between your exit press conference and now, and we do know, like the
08:55interviews, we do know the interviews that happen, they get leaked.
08:58It's almost never that these interviews actually don't get leaked.
09:02Not at the coordinator level.
09:03I think you usually find out.
09:05And right now, it feels to me like there's not much going on in Santa Clara.
09:10And meanwhile, other teams are making hires and they're making moves and the Niners are
09:14just sitting there with a candle in the window, waiting for Bob Sala.
09:18Do you really think that?
09:19Like, I love...
09:21That's the statement I want to dig in.
09:22I think that Kyle Shanahan...
09:23Do you really think they're sitting there twiddling their thumbs like idiots?
09:26I think Kyle Shanahan, in his house, he has a front room and when it gets dark, he goes
09:32to his front room and he lights a candle and he sits there by the window and he looks to
09:37see if Robert Sala is coming in.
09:39That's what you think.
09:40Is that Bob's car?
09:41Is that Bob's car?
09:42Is that real?
09:43Wait.
09:44Is that Bob?
09:45Be real with me.
09:46Be real.
09:47That's what you think.
09:48I think they're waiting for a candidate that they're not going to get and then when Robert
09:53Sala gets the Jacksonville job, now it's going to be a scramble for some nobody to go ahead
10:00and try to put a Band-Aid where you need it.
10:01I just wanted to get to where you really think the Niners are just sitting there on the pot,
10:07staring out a window, doing nothing because they forgot they're supposed to be working.
10:11That's what you think.
10:12I didn't say that they forgot that they're supposed to be working.
10:14I think that they have all their eggs in one basket.
10:16With a candle or something.
10:17Eggs in one basket and that basket, if that basket doesn't come home to roost, then what?
10:23Then they go to plan B, which may be awesome.
10:26Right.
10:27Yeah.
10:28It's allowed to be.