San Francisco 49ers: Today's Equivalents of the 2011 Head-Coaching Candidates
The continued chatter about a potential departure for San Francisco 49ers’ head coach Jim Harbaugh continues.
It’s not a foregone conclusion—a prolonged playoff run would be a strong indicator for him sticking around another season, and there’s every possibility that Harbaugh would refuse a trade and then coach out his contract through 2015.
However, with the 49ers on the playoff ropes, the possibility of someone else taking over the team in 2015 looms large.
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My opinion, which isn’t actually based on any inside information, is that Harbaugh will keep his job in 2015 and the 49ers make the playoffs at 10-6. He might well be asked to get rid of Greg Roman, which could be the factor that dictates whether he can continue in San Francisco, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this is all being blown a bit out of proportion.
Again, that isn’t based on evidence—just gut feeling.
However, assuming that I am wrong—and I often am—I decided to take a look at the last time the 49ers were searching for a head coach. By looking at the types of candidates Jed York looked at in 2011, we can get some idea of the sorts of candidates he’d look at in 2015.
Of course, there are notable differences between this search and the previous search. In 2011, they were also searching for a general manager, while this would just be a search for a head coach.
There are also a number of in-house candidates that would be worth consideration here, such as defensive coordinator Vic Fangio and defensive-line coach Jim Tomsula, whereas the 2011 search basically involved an entirely new staff. Still, it’s a good starting point.
So going back to news reports and rumors from 2011, here are seven candidates the 49ers considered and their modern-day equivalents.
Bill Parcells, Retired
A new biography of Bill Parcells revealed this week that he was Jed York’s first choice to be head coach of the team back in 2011. The then-69-year-old Parcells had been retired from coaching for four years, but when you have the opportunity to get a multiple Super Bowl-winning coach on your team, you have to at least take a look.
We knew that York had contacted Parcells at the time, but it was thought York was just getting Parcells’ opinion of Trent Baalke, who had worked with Parcells as a scout. Now, it turns out York might have been trying to land the Big Tuna for his coach—a bold and unlikely maneuver, but one at least worth kicking the tires on.
The 2015 equivalent? Probably Bill Cowher, the ex-Steelers coach currently working as an analyst for CBS. Cowher’s name always comes up for these sorts of openings in the offseason, but he’s never shown any real interest. He’d be the biggest name out there and worth poking to see if he has any interest.
Hue Jackson, Offensive Coordinator, Oakland Raiders
Hue Jackson was one of the three coordinators the 49ers either interviewed or were rumored to have interviewed back in 2011, and it’s not hard to see why.
Jackson had taken over the offensive-coordinator role at the Raiders in 2010 and produced the sixth-best offense of the year. This, despite handling a rotating cast of quarterbacks in Jason Campbell, Bruce Gradkowski and Kyle Boller.
He also had the benefit of allowing the 49ers to meet the Rooney Rule, which requires them to interview minority candiates.
For a 2015 equivalent, we’re looking for an offensive coordinator with a history as a quarterbacks coach and success with lesser-quality players. That screams Adam Gase, the offensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos.
Not only has he proved his ability to win with a quarterback such as Peyton Manning, he was also the quarterbacks coach when the Broncos made the playoffs with Tim Tebow in 2011. If Gase can win with Tebow, he can certainly win with Kaepernick. Kaepernick has similar tendencies to Tebow; he’s just better at all of them. Gase is a very intriguing candidate.
Perry Fewell, Defensive Coordinator, New York Giants
The 49ers didn’t look at too many defensive-minded coaches in 2011, but one of them was Perry Fewell. Fewell led a takeaway-heavy defense in 2010. With 39 turnovers, they actually lead the league.
He also had had several years of success in Buffalo, to the extent that he was named interim coach in 2009.
Honestly, the best Fewell equivalent is probably Vic Fangio. He’s already put together a great defense and has familiarity with the players.
Ideally, even if Harbaugh leaves, Fangio would stay as defensive coordinator. But if Harbaugh leaves and Fangio would only stay as head coach, I’d go ahead and make him head coach.
Jim Harbaugh, Head Coach, Stanford
A Bay Area coach who won a major bowl game while leading a Top 25 team? Where would we find such a person?
David Shaw, the current Stanford head coach, has seen his stock drop a little this season, as his team has struggled slightly, going 7-5.
Still, Shaw’s got a Rose Bowl to his credit and took the Cardinal to a major bowl game in each of his first three seasons as head coach. Even this year’s Cardinal is a fine team; all five losses have come to ranked opponents, and they will be Bowl bound, albeit to a lesser one such as the Cactus Bowl.
If the 49ers have had success with one Stanford head coach, why not go back to that well?
Brian Billick, Color Analyst, FOX
Brian Billick, the ex-Ravens head coach, was widely rumored to be a candidate for the 49ers back in 2011. Billick had ties to the Bay Area, having been an assistant at Stanford for several years.
An offensive-minded ex-coach with a Super Bowl ring who has spent several years away from coaching being a tolerable talking head on weekly game broadcasts is the candidate we’re looking for.
Is it just me, or does that describe Jon Gruden to a tee? Gruden has plenty of Bay Area roots—he’s coached for the 49ers, Raiders and the University of the Pacific. He’s an offensive-minded coach, having been offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles under Ray Rhodes. And he also has that shiny Super Bowl ring from 2002.
The question, of course, is whether Gruden’s ready to leave the Monday Night Football booth. He has said publically that he’s “not even thinking” about returning to the sidelines at this point, but those kinds of statements are far from binding.
I think it’s more likely Gruden would return to Oakland, if for no other reason than being less likely to face his brother in Washington, but he’s the logical doppelganger for Billick.
Josh McDaniels, ex-Head Coach, Denver Broncos
Josh McDaniels had just been fired as head coach from the Denver Broncos when the 49ers began looking for a new head coach. He had led the Broncos to a 3-9 record and was let go mid-season.
Despite only having two subpar seasons as head coach under his belt (for an 11-17 record), McDaniels was considered an offensive guru and reportedly came highly recommended to the 49ers front office. In the end, though, McDaniels took on an offensive coordinator position with the St. Louis Rams.
Your possible 2015 equivalent? Marc Trestman, who is hanging on by a thread with the Chicago Bears at the moment, having put up a 13-15 record in Chicago.
Trestman still has the reputation of something of a quarterback whisperer, having coached and done well with the likes of Bernie Kosar, Steve Young, Jake Plummer, Rich Gannon and Jay Cutler. While his time in Chicago hasn’t worked out, I think that’s more down to the poor quality of the defense than anything else—something the 49ers don’t have to worry about.
I think Trestman would be better as a potential offensive coordinator for the 49ers, but he’d be an interesting off-board choice for head coach.
Marty Mornhinweg, Offensive Coordinator, Philadelphia Eagles
The last notable name the 49ers were linked with was Marty Mornhinweg, as they were considered “likely” to interview him before Harbaugh took the job.
Mornhinweg, after two more or less failed years as a head coach in Detroit in 2001 and 2002, built up an impressive resume as an assistant head coach and offensive coordinator for Andy Reid’s Eagles, back when they were roughly the equivalent of the current-day 49ers—consistently contenders but never could quite get over the hump.
The thought was that, with more experience under his belt, he’d be a better coach the second time around.
This could actually still, in theory, be Mornhinweg, though his two years as the Jets’ coordinator haven’t exactly been amazing.
It could also describe Josh McDaniels, who has had a much better time in New England the last few years, though ex-Belichick men haven’t done brilliantly as head coaches around the league. It could even describe Hue Jackson—a lot of the candidates from 2011 are still hanging around as candidates for 2015.
However, I’m going to highlight Pat Shurmur, the current Philadelphia offensive coordinator and ex-head coach of the Cleveland Browns. Shurmur has tons of experience coaching and has learned from both Andy Reid and Chip Kelly—two very strong offensive-minded coaches.
He didn’t get a fair shake in Cleveland, though his record wasn’t likely to keep him there too much longer anyway, and he’d be an interesting wild-card candidate for the job.
I still think, however, the best person to coach the San Francisco 49ers in 2015 is Jim Harbaugh. We’ll see what happens over the last month of the season.
Bryan Knowles is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report, covering the San Francisco 49ers. Follow him @BryKno on Twitter.
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