SANTA CLARA — Center Daniel Kilgore had a very telling comment about the 49ers year-old regime, fresh off signing his three-year contract to shun free agency.
“For the first time in a long time, I think our coaches and the front office are on the same page,” Kilgore said on Wednesday’s media conference call announcing his deal.
Kyle Shanahan is the fourth coach Kilgore has played for since 2011, and a blend of stability and uniformity has developed among Shanahan and John Lynch, who replaced Trent Baalke as general manager.
Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is also on that “same page.” Upon signing his NFL-record deal last week, he said a compelling to get it done now was to benefit the 49ers (see: Shanahan and Lynch).
“It’s only going to help our team going forward, going into free agency,” Garoppolo said of the upcoming recruiting season.
The Shanahan-Lynch dynamic is another selling point as the 49ers head into free agency with some $60 million in salary cap space.
When the 49ers acquired Garoppolo in an Oct. 30 trade from the New England Patriots, you didn’t see Shanahan or Lynch fighting to take credit for it. Lynch had the history with Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who offered him a last chance at continuing his playing career. It was Shanahan who received Belichick’s Oct. 30 call suggesting a trade, and it was Shanahan and Lynch who conversed together for 10 minutes to agree on the deal.
How did they deduce Garoppolo was worth a massive contract? Collaboration, not to mention they simply opened their eyes like everyone else.
“Kyle and I spent a lot of time, as I said, just observing the person, watching the way he interacted with his teammates, watching the way they responded to him,” Lynch said last week. “And for me, hey, there’s never any assurances, but there are qualities that the really good players in this league, the great players in this league, that they share. And he demonstrated a lot.”
As much as coaches and general managers evaluate players, the same holds true vice versa. Players want to know if they can trust their bosses, if one will make promises another one may not keep.
Jed York, the 49ers’ CEO, is understandably encouraged by the 49ers’ direction, one year into giving Shanahan and Lynch six-year deals.
“I feel like Kyle and John are a very good partnership,” York said last week. “Knowing Kyle and knowing how he thinks about football and knowing what his vision is for the team, I felt very good — even when we were 0-9 — I felt like our locker room was a lot tighter than what I’ve seen in 49ers locker rooms in the past with much better records than that.”
Those old locker rooms he speaks of where from the 2011-13 playoff seasons, when Jim Harbaugh came to the 49ers rescue as coach and ultimately clashed with Baalke. Then came Jim Tomsula. Then Chip Kelly.
Kilgore was there for it all. He acknowledged getting nervous at his 2018 fate as last season unfolded, not knowing if the new regime would discard him like so many other Baalke holdovers.
“Talking one-on-one with various coaches, I had a positive outlook for the future,” Kilgore said. “The coaches have an opinion of you but there’s also the front office. That’s a totally different thing.”
A different regime has bred more than a different roster.
“I’d venture to say 90 percent (of the roster) is all new from two years ago,” Kilgore said. “It’s just amazing for a team with so many guys from different backgrounds, different teams and different age groups, how well we mesh together and how well we get along with each other.”
Added Garoppolo: “We’re working in the right direction. Like John (Lynch) said earlier, there’s a lot of pieces that come into play. I think we’re putting those pieces into place, and now once the season comes, we have to actually go out there and perform. That’s really what this league is about: going out there, executing, and performing on Sundays, and the results will speak for themselves.”
