49ers ownership is "open to significant changes just one year into its latest coaching/management regime," with GM Trent Baalke in "jeopardy of losing his job and coach Chip Kelly hanging in the balance as well," according to sources cited by Jason La Canfora of CBSSPORTS.com. It would "be a surprise if Baalke was retained, though he has deep ties" to CEO Jed York and has been "viewed as a loyal and trusted employee." The 49ers are "under intense fan pressure to make some changes." Several NFL owners "believe Jed York's parents, Denise and John York, will be taking a more hands-on approach with the team as they determine how to reposition the franchise." Former NFL coach Mike Shanahan also "could join the 49ers in a coaching and/or executive capacity" (CBSSPORTS.com, 12/11). Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio said if Baalke is fired "there are a lot of jobs out there" and he will "find something somewhere else." Florio said what "becomes compelling" is where do the 49ers go next." Florio: "Do they give Chip Kelly more power? Do they elevate (Senior Personnel Exec) Tom Gamble to GM, and it's Gamble and Kelly running the show? Or do they bring in somebody from the outside, sort of like a (former Jets GM) John Idzik/Rex Ryan deal?" ("Pro Footbal Talk," NBCSN, 12/12).
LAYING DOWN THE HAMMER: The 49ers fell to the Jets 23-17 in OT yesterday, their 12th consecutive loss this season, and in S.F. Ann Killion asks, "Who gets fired. ... All of them?" It "certainly can’t be none of them." The 49ers are a franchise that has "so badly lost its way that it will require a massive overhaul to get back to merely mediocre." The "fates of Baalke and Kelly have been in question every week." Jed York has "done a miserable job as a football executive and his parents -- the real owners -- know that their family business is a laughingstock again." Killion: "Under Baalke’s watch, the 49ers are in position to need everything ... all at the same time" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 12/12). In San Jose, Tim Kawakami writes the Yorks will "not fire themselves, and surely do not want to fire Baalke, who has been one of their favorite employees since he took over as GM" full-time in '11. However, the empty seats for yesterday's game at Levi's Stadium "were impossible to ignore." The "only way the Yorks can begin to fix this is to fire Baalke" either today, next week or at the end of the season, "hire a serious GM and let that GM make a call on Kelly." However, the Yorks "almost never do anything big until they absolutely have to." Kawakami: "They will wait until January. They will imagine the possibility of hundreds, if not thousands, of PSL-holders possibly walking away from their tickets and maybe their long-term payments, and they will wonder if the big stadium sponsors might walk away from renewals. But the Yorks will have to do this" (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 12/12).
BON APPETIT: In S.F., Scott Ostler wrote 49ers season-ticket holders "made a dumb investment," as they "believed Jed York when he told you that the 49ers are entitled to win the Super Bowl every year because of his fierce determination." Season-ticket holders "enabled" York to "build a stadium so grand that it prices out all the people who now can’t afford to buy your unwanted tickets, which you now eat." Ostler: "Bon appetit." Many fans, ticket-buyers or not, are "clamoring for the Yorks to sell the team they have run into the ground." Many 49ers fans "believe you can shame or harass the Yorks into selling their team." But history "tells us clearly that team owners don’t sell because they have been criticized and ridiculed by media and fans." Team owners, even those who "inherited their team, are smug in their belief that they are smarter than we are." Ostler: "What makes them smarter? Well, they own a sports team, and we don’t" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 12/11).
