Holy Crap: Browns nearly traded with 49ers for Jim Harbaugh

[Hasselbeck]

-My biggest fear about Harbaugh was his youth. I was afraid of him being in SF for 20+ years and dominating the division after Pete Carroll retires. That scenario where Harbaugh becomes the longest tenured HC in modern NFL history is starting to look a lot less likely.

Jim Harbaugh is going to be the next Bill Parcells IMO. Just that guy that goes WAY WAY too hard.. then has to step away for a year, come back.. lather, rinse, repeat.

 

[redeye81]

Seattle should throw a 7th rounder for Jimmy and make him our water boy..

 

[chris98251]

Jerry Jones is salivating right now. Garrett is not getting extended or has not yet, If Hairdouche isn't and coaches out this year Jerry will throw money his way.

 

[DavidSeven]

Oh...BTW...he has TWO years left on his deal, not one.

I don't think he finishes those two years without an extension. He'll be fielding calls next off-season, and the 49ers will have far less leverage to demand a king's ransom in draft compensation.

 

[chris98251]

I believe in thewhere there is smoke there is fire in this situation.

 

[Brahn]

I get what you are saying....and BTW I have no idea what the compensation would be...

...just saying you always have to do your due diligence.

If he were to leave, who do you see the Niners targeting? Think they promote from within or go for a Gruden to go with the new stadium?

 

[SeahawksFanForever]

I highly doubt Harbaugh is going anywhere but If (HUGE if) he does then 49ers are going to need a new QB soon. Kap is going to struggle without Harbaugh. Harbaugh is a great coach and turned around Alex Smith's career.

 

[Popeyejones]

and the whole "Two men don't have to like one another to work well together" quote from Baalke

Just for clarification, I know folks here keep on repeating this as a quote, but it's not a quote, nor have Baalke or Harbaugh ever publicly said anything about disliking each other. Tim Kawakami (who has been a reporter in the Bay Area for seemingly forever and who has always basically been a hack and a troll) said there was a rift between Harbaugh and Baalke, and Baalke responded to questions about Kawakami's claim. Baalke's response:

“I think that’s all overblown. It’s no different than it’s been since Day 1. I think every relationship changes to a certain degree. It’s very professional. He’s got a job to do. I’ve got a job to do. We try to do that together and we do it well together. It’s not just the two of us. There’s so many people that are involved in decisions and everything else that goes on here. So many people that have been involved in the success of this organization over time. So I think people like to focus on that, but in my opinion it’s way overblown. You’re not going to always agree. And I don’t know that that’s healthy, always agreeing and always being on the exact same page. I do believe there’s times when that isn’t going to happen. And that’s OK.”

http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2013/12/20 ... ay-in-nfl/

 

[DavidSeven]

More support for PFT report:

Chris Mortensen ‏@mortreport 2m
Browns did indeed make a run at Jim Harbaugh that reached a serious stage, sources confirm substance of @ProFootballTalk report.

Edit: not a fan of Mort either though, so take it for what you will. He's largely considered credible, but whiffs on a lot too IMO.

 

[Jville]

Harbaugh is the one who initiated the contact and the 49ers were ok with it. It apparently failed due to disagreements over compensation. Harbaugh I'm sure wanted to be the highest paid coach in the league. Also the draft picks would have been significant and they're more important than 1 or 2m in coaches salary so WTF?

Here's a question to Hawk fans:

Would you rather have Harbaugh "traded" and the SF get a bunch of early picks or Harbaugh stay?

I'd rather watch the smoke signals

 

[Popeyejones]

Isn't Matt Maiaco, or however you spell it, a bay area Niner guy? He is reporting it as fact as well.

Also Tim Kawakami (so?) San Jose Mercury writer

Nah, Matt Maiocco is just writing about the other reporting. He hasn't added anything original to the mix or weighed in/confirmed anything with his own sources. Same story with Kawakami, who is on vacation right now.

FWIW if Maiocco does say something based off his own reporting I'd believe it. He's a very good reporter. Kawakami not so much.

As a general rule for 9ers reporters --

Worth listening to:

Maiocco
Barrows
Branch

Not worth listening to:

Grant Cohn
Bill Williamson
Kawakami (doesn't even really count as he covers the Warriors, but has been doing Bay Area sports since the mid 90s at least).

Blah:

Cam Inman

 

[Popeyejones]

Well apparently he has a very close relationship with Lombardi. He was still the GM when all of these talks supposedly took place.

FWIW the final two candidates for GM for the 9ers in 2011 were Trent Baalke and Mike Lombardi. They hadn't signed Harbaugh yet, but everyone knew they were going to make a run at him. The story was that Harbaugh signed off on Baalke in advance, and had met with him in advance. It was reported as if Lombardi was in the picture to guarantee Harbaugh, and after Harbaugh signed off on Baalke they proceeded with Baalke, who was their first choice.

 

[Seahawk Sailor]

I can't understand why anyone could possibly think this guy is hard to work with, or that he might not get along with people in the workplace.

 

[Popeyejones]

If he were to leave, who do you see the Niners targeting? Think they promote from within or go for a Gruden to go with the new stadium?

Probably promote from within and go with Tomsula, IMO.

I'm sure like everyone else they'd ask Gruden and he'd turn them down.

 

[Jville]

That whole Cleveland Coach and GM search inspired a lot of rumors and speculation. It produced theater ..... a full blown soap opera.

NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport passes along a few notable tidbits on the Browns’ coaching search, tweeting that Farmer wasn’t present during Pettine’s interview. Rapoport adds that if Cleveland had been able to hire Adam Gase of the Broncos, the club wanted to pair him with Seahawks exec Scot McCloughan, replacing Lombardi (Twitter link).

[urltargetblank]http://www.profootballrumors.com/category/scot-mccloughan/[/urltargetblank]

 

[HawkRiderFan]

If Lombardi was a big part of this maybe it fell apart when he got fired. Some sort of talks happened. I doubt these guys make this stuff up out of the blue. I am trying to remember the Gruden situation, the last time something like this happened. Did that all happen in one off-season or was there some talk of discontent earlier between him and Davis?

 

[-The Glove-]

If Lombardi was a big part of this maybe it fell apart when he got fired. Some sort of talks happened. I doubt these guys make this stuff up out of the blue. I am trying to remember the Gruden situation, the last time something like this happened. Did that all happen in one off-season or was there some talk of discontent earlier between him and Davis?

or he got fired because it fell apart

 

[Marvin49]

That was ONE tweet from someone I've never heard of. I remember Harbaugh was supposedly in an airport in Miami three years ago as well.

Just looked the guy up...he's from Cleveland.

I'm sure he's the guy to be trusted.

Pretty sure since all of this stuff is rumors and crap, no one is to be trusted.

Kinda my point...but a guy in Cleveland trying to make the Cleveland people feel better by using this as an example of how Coaches actually DO want to coach in Cleveland and work for that disfunction makes me really doubt the validity of the source.

Isn't Matt Maiaco, or however you spell it, a bay area Niner guy? He is reporting it as fact as well.

No he's mostly saying it MIGHT be true an that if it was that Jim Tomsula would likely be Jim's replacement. My personal opinion is that Florio isn't lying, the Cleveland guy isn't lying, and that Jed York isn't lying.

I thin Mike Lombardi tried to swing for the fences when he realized his job was in jeapardy, failed, got fired, and is now the source in an effort to repair his reputation.

He did the same when he wanted the 49ers GM job before Baalke got it. He leaked later that he would have gotten Harbaugh and McDaniels as OC.

I think there is some truth that there were talks but that it was never close to actually happening.

 

[Marvin49]

Jerry Jones is salivating right now. Garrett is not getting extended or has not yet, If Hairdouche isn't and coaches out this year Jerry will throw money his way.

Two years on contract. Would require huge compensation from Cowboys. Not impossible. Just expensive.

 

[Marvin49]

Oh...BTW...he has TWO years left on his deal, not one.

I don't think he finishes those two years without an extension. He'll be fielding calls next off-season, and the 49ers will have far less leverage to demand a king's ransom in draft compensation.

1) I think he'll get extended. My guess is he's about to be the highest paid coach in the NFL.

2) Sure they can. Any team trading for him will be looking to extend. It might be less that this year, but if Harbaugh moves on next year the 49ers will be well compensated...especially since there may be a competitive market.