First Casualty
Not Surprised
I hate hearing about people getting fired or laid off. In our current economic environment it happens way too much with companies taking advantage of the fastest way to increase revenue to appease share holders: mass layoffs. But that isn’t this.
Steve is going to be OK. Coaching salaries in the NFL are a little better than the average job and I have no doubt he’ll land on his feet. He seems like a great dude who just happened to be a bad fit at DC for the 49ers.
Is anyone really surprised about this? If you are you haven’t watched a lot of 49ers football over the last 3 years, and especially this year. Steve was very different from Salah and DeMeco. Which is fine, you want people to be who they are, but something seemed off all year as far as the defensive connection with Steve.
Starting with being in the booth, getting called out and then coming to the sideline to Kyle calling a timeout in the SB because he didn’t like the defensive lineup in the moment (Kyle was 100% right). The fit just never seemed to be right.
I wish Steve the best wherever he ends up.
Who’s Next?
This begs the question of who the next DC will be. I personally believe that comes down to two factors:
- How much Jed will pay our new DC.
- How familiar the coach needs to be with the DNA of the 49ers.
The names being thrown out currently are Bill Belichick and Rex Ryan but both of those seem like long shots to me. Bills asking price alone might be more than Kyles salary - I can’t see it. Rex Ryan only reached out the Cowboys - he might have zero interest in being the DC of the 49ers - who knows.
There’s a lot of names out there available as far as I can tell: Matt Patricia, Mike Pettine, Jesse Minter, Al Holcomb…prob a ton more I can’t think of off the top of my head.
My first choice - BY FAR - would be to somehow convince Pete Carrol to be the coordinator for the 49ers. 1st, Pete is awesome, he’s a defensive coach first, and players love him. 2nd, I would just loooooove watching Seahawk fans implode over the hire.
I think my next choice to bring in for an interview would be Chris Shula. He’s currently the Pass rush coordinator/linebackers coach for the Los Angeles Rams. He’s a young name to watch.
My flier, and hear me out on this, hire Richard Sherman to the DC. He’s got the intelligence and the moxie to do it. He’s a natural leader. He knows the defense inside and out. He’s close with everyone on the team. He might have zero interest, but why the fuck not? At that level it’s about intelligence, scheme knowledge, and the ability to motivate guys. I truly believe that he could walk right into a DC title and excel.
Anyway, it should be interesting to watch which way this hire goes this year.