Your daily San Francisco 49ers news for Friday, March 29th, 2024
“New York Jets coach Robert Saleh and his counterpart with the Houston Texans, DeMeco Ryans, walked together from the coffee shop to their next meeting in the conference wing. The two former 49ers defensive coordinators caught up on the stroll. Just a few minutes later, Tennessee Titans general manager Ran Carthon — formerly the 49ers’ director of player personnel — entered the lobby with his family. Carthon smiled as he ran into Minnesota Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who was the 49ers’ director of research and development until 2019.
Then, both men ran into their former boss, 49ers general manager John Lynch, on his way to meet with local reporters.
Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, formerly the 49ers’ offensive coordinator, and Washington Commanders general manager Adam Peters, who was Lynch’s top lieutenant until January, were also prominent in Orlando. So was a former 49ers coach from another era: Jim Harbaugh, who has wrapped up a nine-year run with Michigan to coach the Los Angeles Chargers.”
“Who is really running the defense? How are the 49ers delineating the two roles? Is it a shadow government with Staley at the helm?
To answer that last part, maybe. Shanahan indicated that Staley would have, and has already played, a major role. Sorenson, the internal promotion from the defensive passing game specialist/nickels coach, will call plays.
“Nick is going to call the plays,” Shanahan said. “Nick will be a huge part of the game planning and doing everything on that side of the ball, and helping me out in other areas also. Brandon will be a big part of the game plans, implementing a lot of our defense here in the offseason and during each week, preparing for teams.”
If you know anything about Shanahan, detailed game-planning is at the core of his approach. He wanted someone he could trust on that aspect, without having to put more time in than usual on defense.”
49ers’ O-line maintains crucial continuity heading into 2024
“The more O-line play together, the better they get,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said at the NFL Annual Meeting. “It’s the one position where five guys really have to work a lot through practice in the offseason, training camp and throughout the year.”
“You watch an O-line in the last half of the year and compare it to the first, they usually get better, if they stay healthy. We’ve been able to do that for the most part. Excited to get our group back. We’ll always keep looking to add and improve through the draft, to get more competition in there. But I’ve been real happy with our group.”
Why Shanahan believes Sorensen was correct choice for 49ers’ DC role
“I just love where he’s at from a football mind,” Shanahan said. “Our players love him. He’s been talking to our team every Thursday, doing the ball (emphasis) meetings. Our players are used to him and it’s a great opportunity for him. We’re happy to put him in this position.
Why 49ers CEO Jed York backed off ‘win the Super Bowl or bust’ mantra (paywall)
“I just think you can’t be ashamed of a successful season,” York said. “Our goal is always going to be to win Super Bowls. … What I’ve learned in my time as CEO, it’s not a complete failure to not win. Where I (previously) had probably more of a ‘You either win the Super Bowl or you 100% lose’ (mindset). You can’t not celebrate the fact that we’ve accomplished some really good things with this team. I would trade a lot of good seasons for winning a Super Bowl, but we’ve collectively had a very, very successful program.
“And as much as I would give just about anything to have won (last month’s Super Bowl), or four years ago against Kansas City, you can’t leave and say the whole season was a disgrace. It’s not. It’s a disappointment to not win. But you can’t destroy yourself and destroy everything that you built because you didn’t finish and hit your ultimate goal.”
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“There’s a difference between when (DeBartolo) ran the club and with us,” York said. “You guys bring up how you pay Brock and the salary cap. Eddie didn’t have a salary cap. If we didn’t have a salary cap, (Aiyuk’s contract) would have been done three weeks ago. … You wouldn’t let a guy like Arik Armstead go if you had no salary cap. Those are things that have changed, and so it’s trying to accept the reality of what the NFL is, and knowing that there’s only so many things that you can control when you have a fixed cap. … It’s hard when your standard was set in sort of a relatively unachievable way of the 49ers that I grew up with.”
York continued, noting the 49ers paid Steve Young handsomely to back up Joe Montana: “We don’t have the luxury of having the second-highest-paid quarterback being our backup quarterback the way my uncle did. I wish we did. That would be fantastic. I would love to have a roster of starting quarterbacks that can be Pro Bowlers. But that’s just not the way the league works now. So you have to adjust with it.”