The San Francisco 49ers fired Jim Tomsula just one year into the post-Jim Harbaugh era. For an organization that was proud of its decisions in recent years, it must be tough admitting that mistakes were made. While the team may be in shambles now, at least there’s a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel.
Jed York, in a single-man press conference on Monday morning, finally admitted defeat in front of media. While he didn’t flat-out say that firing Harbaugh was the wrong move, he essentially said it in a different way. There’s was no use of holding him “accountable” or trying to find “a teacher” as the next head coach.
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Instead, there was admission that he wasn’t “a football expert.” He looked back and realized the mistakes he’s made and said he learned from them. There was also the brutal honesty of him taking things too personally, a factor that probably led to Harbaugh’s eventual departure.
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To sum up Monday’s press conference, York knows he screwed up. Now he’s going to try and be the CEO he should have been in the first place — a hands-off guy that simply should be asking, “How much is that going to be?”
We’re going to find out exactly how much the 49ers are willing to spend this offseason. They’re going to be paying Tomsula when he’s working somewhere else. Getting a qualified head coach will cost more than promoting Tomsula. An aggressive approach to free agency will be required to get this roster back to postseason contention.
At the very least, York figured this out throughout 2015 and finally brushed his ego aside. No media members covering the 49ers in this forgettable season thought that he would admit defeat so fast, likely making a scapegoat out of Colin Kaepernick and keeping the mundane coaching staff for one more year. Then, probably forcing Tomsula and general manager Trent Baalke out.
Instead, York is putting the ball in Baalke’s court. With one year left on the GM’s contract, Baalke will lead the head coaching search, pick the players in next year’s draft, and work with the new head coach on assembling a roster that needs to put up at least twice the results it did in 2015.
Since Baalke’s name is attached to the drift between management and Harbaugh and his recent drafts haven’t been that successful, fans won’t be excited to hear this. But if York keeps to his word by letting football experts handle this and becomes a much bigger spender in 2016, then fans will know who to blame if another failure happens this year.
York believed that bringing in Harbaugh was a genius hire and thought he could strike gold again with another move. He stupidly compared the move to the Golden State Warriors canning Mark Jackson for Steve Kerr. Now the current Michigan coach is burning him with Bible verses and York is the one stuck eating humble pie.
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The 49ers CEO doesn’t get a pass on his stupid decisions, but he’s at least leaned from his mistakes. Letting go of Harbaugh will still be on his tombstone. However, he may soon be able to open a social media account without someone telling him to sell the team, quit, or obviously much worse things with improvement. The current choices he’s making right now is looking like a quicker path toward that.