Chris Grier – March 2, 2022
Download PDF version
Wednesday, March 2, 2022
General Manager Chris Grier
(We were talking with Head Coach Mike McDaniel today, and the subject of running backs came up. He used the word paramount. He said “the running back position is paramount in his offense.” Given that, how much are you willing to commit today to prioritizing obtaining a top-level running back?) – “I didn’t know he said that. I’ve been in competition committee meetings all day. I’ll have to talk to him about leaking all of the secrets out. (laughter) At the end of the day, Mike and the coaching staff have done a great job coming in and starting late like they did, and getting everyone hired. Going through the process with them, they’ve watched our roster, they’ve done free agency, college stuff, so these guys are working 24 hours to catch up, and they’ve done a great job. Obviously, Mike is known for the run game. Just talking to people, Gary Kubiak and my father worked together, so I’ve talked to Coach Kubiak about him, and just going through it, obviously Mike has had a lot of success in evaluating and finding running backs too. John Lynch has talked about that, talked about it when we were interviewing him. Kyle Shanahan and all of the guys that have worked with him. The running back position is important to him and to have success in this league, you have to be able to run the ball too, as well. It’s one of the positions we’re studying hard and it’s why we love this time of year with free agency and the draft.”
(Where is the sweet spot of getting a running back? I feel like the community is split where there is no value in getting one in the first round or getting an undrafted guy?) – “I think at the end of the day, if there is that talent that is just so unique, you have to take them. People argue whether Saquon Barkley worked out or not, but he’s an incredibly talented football player. Ezekiel Elliot is the same. You go through those and make your judgements. But at the end of the day, you always have to do what’s best for your team. Mike’s had a lot of success finding good running backs in the mid-to-late rounds in terms of evaluations. We were going through some of his evaluations and talking about it, and the 49ers people all confirmed it. We got (Kenyan) Drake in the third round a few years ago. We’re just trying to get that balance right. At the end of the day, you have to go with your gut. You get all of the information you find out on players and work through it and decide the value of the player whether it’s the first round or seventh round.”
(How would you assess how the offensive line play last year and what did you do right and what did you do wrong about that position?) – “We’ve invested in it with draft picks. Those guys need to play better. They understand that. But I would say that Mike (McDaniel), Frank Smith coming over as the offensive coordinator was the (offensive) line coach with the Chargers, and Coach (Matt) Applebaum, have all talked about they are really excited about the development and ability of these young players. They said they all liked these players coming out of the draft at their previous teams – obviously Matt was in college, but he’d seen a couple of those players through the college lens. They are very excited about the potential and the developmental upside of them. Listening to Mike talk about them, he was like ‘there is talent there.’ We’ve just got to find a way to unlock it and get these guys to play better. The good thing is that all of those guys are good guys. They are competitive, they are tough, they want to be good, so I think they are looking forward to playing in this offense.”
(What is the likelihood that you will use the franchise tag?) – “I think all options are open. I think with the coaching staff coming in and giving them the opportunity to look at the players and evaluate the guys who potentially could be tagged for us. I think we have to leave all options on the table for us. That could be a potential move for us.”
(Do you feel like conversations with DE Emmanuel Ogbah and TE Mike Gesicki are going in a comfortable place with you guys that a deal could get done before that date?) – “I’d say I’ve probably had more discussions with Drew (Rosenhaus) on Ogbah. Those were going on all throughout the course of the season. We talked to him at multiple points in the season. We know what he is, he’s a good guy, good player, good person, and fits all of the criteria we’re looking for and has done a nice job for us for the last two years. And then Mike, Mike knows how I feel about him. I drafted him and I’ve had separate conversations with Mike. We’ve had limited talks with his agents because as we got to the end of the season with free agency, both of those guys, when you get to this point, they want to be able to see what their options are. But they’ve both told us they want to be back in Miami. They both love it here, they want to be back, so we’ll see what happens.”
(Is there a – Head Coach Mike McDaniel runs a wide zone offense where tight ends are a major contributor in the run game. Is there a comfort level that Mike can be able to do that and be able to fit into that?) – “Yeah. We all know that Mike, the thing he needs to really try and improve on is his run blocking. Mike is known as a pass catcher and I think Coach (Jon) Embree – you saw George Kittle gave him a ton of credit for developing him as a blocker. I think the one thing with Mike, as you guys have gotten to know him over the years, is he’s always been very competitive. He took a lot of that stuff personal, what people were saying about him earlier in his career. He knows that the blocking part of it will be emphasized and he’s going to have to buy into that part. I’m not saying that he hasn’t, but he can be better at it. I think he knows that too.”
(Is the organization willing to tweak CB Xavien Howard’s contract again and is there any chance that he would be made available for trade?) – “I’ve had multiple talks with Xavien this offseason, and David (Canter), his agent, and I have had some texts back and forth. Yeah, we’re going to have some conversations and see if we can come to some sort of resolution. My anticipation is that Xavien will be here next year.”
(Is it safe to assume that you will be picking up the fifth-year option on DT Christian Wilkins’ contract?) – “He had a heck of a year last year. I would say most likely, but we’ll make that decision when we get to that.”
(You mentioned CB Xavien Howard earlier. Do you feel like there has to be something done to his deal or do you feel you can run it back with what is currently left on his deal?) – “We made a promise to him after the season that when we made the adjustment that we’d look at it, play through the season, get us into the third year of the deal and then we’d look at it top to bottom. Just to be truthful with him and do it, that’s the right thing to do. If he wants to come back and play on the deal, we would. But we know that’s not the case.”
(You have more cap space than anybody. In the past, you’ve said that you’re not going to sit on cap space. Does that still stand? What is your stance on all of your cap space and what you can do in free agency?) – “I think it provides opportunities for us to do a lot of different things, whether it’s free agency, trades and stuff to do. I think for us, we’re not living year to year. We’re going to try to also have some perspective. For us, the opportunity to add good players, we’ve always pursued and tried to do it. We will be aggressive still and if the right player, and if Mike and I feel he is the right player for us, and to help us get better and keep us going forward, we’ll go after him. That doesn’t mean we’re going to spend every cent or right up to it because I think that leads you to not being able to do moves in-season, or like we had a couple of times in the past where good players became available before the trade deadline and we didn’t have the space and would need to cut to do stuff. I think just doing that allows you flexibility to be able to do things in the future for unforeseen opportunities as well.”
(In 2020, you had a lot of cap space and you did a lot of things and you won 10 games. Last year the Patriots had a lot of space and did a lot of things and they won. Does the idea that you can’t win with free agency, is that out the window in the NFL in your estimation?) – “I think it’s always a balance because history shows that most times you don’t win that way. Like the Redskins back in the day went all in and those teams didn’t win. I think it’s having the right people, the right staff and everything has to kind of fall in place when you do that. I think New England last year did a great job. Free agency like you said, there are probably some players they spent money on that didn’t produce like they wanted and then we had the same thing happen to us. We spent money, but a couple of players weren’t here unfortunately the next year. When you live in that market where you start paying guys a lot of money, they come in and you don’t really know them. You’re relying on what you knew about them from college and then coaches. You can’t really dig down and get information from people because other teams may want to sign them and do it. It’s a little bit of a crapshoot but you try to do your best Sherlock Holmes and find out as much information as you can on them.”
(Can you give us a little insight to the coaching search? How well did you know Head Coach Mike McDaniel before all this? When did you start narrowing down on him being your guy? How did this come about?) – “I didn’t really know Mike (McDaniel). He was a guy that his name was kind of under the radar, popping up for people. Just kind of going through it, we were putting together names for it but he was one that was always in it because everyone was saying that he was the brains behind everything going on. I don’t want to discredit Kyle (Shanahan) because I think Kyle Shanahan is a very good football coach. Obviously we all know what he’s done. But as you guys have gotten to talk to people that know him – the one thing that was always interesting that everyone was talking about was saying how he was like the most swagged out guy and how he looks. You don’t think that he can connect with people like that but he’s just got this way and personality of how he deals with people. As we got to know him and being around him, it was really interesting. He told us from day one in the interview, this was his dream opportunity and he had been waiting for someone to acknowledge him for all the hard work he’s done because he had been with, obviously Sean (McVay) and everyone and all those guys have moved on. (Matt) LaFleur and all them have become successful head coaches, and Kyle as well. It was a really interesting process. He made no bones about he wanted the job because he thought this was a great fit for him and everything. As we got to know him more, we became more excited as we spent more time with him.”
(The first time his name came up, who brought it up? How did that happen?) – “It was really the year before, you kept seeing his name pop up in places. I think the Rams tried to, not the rams – the Chargers – tried to interview him the year before for their offensive coordinator job and it was blocked. You just always kind of appreciate the 49ers. You’re like ‘wow these guys, how do they keep running the ball?’ But they’re doing what they’re doing. And you watch them and the sum of their parts ended up being better than maybe some of the individual players. They have some great individuals. I don’t mean that as a shot to them. But what they were doing there in the run game was very unique in this day and age. Then you go back and you start studying, look at who he worked under and who he had studied under and some of his mentors and philosophies. It was just one where we put him on and we were just like, this would be someone to … we didn’t really know what it was going to be like and everyone kept saying he’s incredibly intelligent, different personality than what you’ll think. But it has been really cool getting to know him.”
(Do you think that because he’s from the same tree or worked with some of these guys that have had success recently that he can also replicate that or have some success of his own?) – “I think he’s his own guy, though. I think if you talk to him, he has his own thoughts and beliefs and I think they are all from that same tree and have some of the same philosophies on stuff but even some of the stuff he’s talked about doing now is so outside the box, it’s been very interesting in just how he approaches. As you talk to people, players and coaches that worked with him and even, I got more calls from other GMs saying, ‘You got my guy. That was the next guy on my radar.’ From guys that have guys, they all though the was a very underrated coach in this league.”
(Did you go into the coaching search seeking specific characteristics or did you go in with an open mind and he just wowed you?) – “With an open mind. We interviewed, like I told you, we talked to some guys that you didn’t even know we talked to, that were very interested in the job. It was fun getting to know them and it’s just, the more work we kept doing on people that knew him and the people that worked with him and just trying to find what makes him tick as a person and as a coach was really interesting. When we met him, met with him and spent some time with him in-person, it was good.”
(You talked about guys that weren’t publicly known about coaching for the job. Was Sean Payton one of them? Did you guys reach out to the Saints to get permission to reach out to Sean Payton?) – “So when Sean decided to step away from football, we just had a conversations. I just said I’ll call and just see. We took our time, as you guys know. We weren’t in a rush to do anything and we were going to make sure that whatever we did, we were going to take our time and get the right guy for us. At the end of the day, I reached out to New Orleans. It was probably a couple of days after. Just to see if he was done with football or does he want to coach? I don’t know what’s going on over there. They just told us they weren’t going to grant permission and that was it. To your point, we’ve always been, since I’ve been here, aggressive looking at options and he’s one of the best coaches in football and we were still in the middle of our interview process. So we reached out to see if he would have interest. I don’t even know if he would have had interest.”
(Jim Harbaugh was another name that was mentioned for you guys. Was he one of the guys that you talked to?) – “No, we never talked to Jim. We never had any conversation with Jim.”
(Going off of the Sean Payton thing, there was a report a week or so ago that you guys were interested in pairing Payton with Tom Brady. Did you ever have any contact with Tom or the Buccaneers?) – “No. We never had any conversations (with) Tom.”
(You talked after the trade deadline last year of the need to do your due diligence. If elite quarterbacks become available, dealing with QB Deshaun Watson, is that still applicable at this point or is that door shut and it’s QB Tua Tagovailoa going forward?) – “I think the door is shut on Deshaun. At the end of the day, Mike and his staff have come through and done a lot of work. They’ve studied a lot of Tua and they feel good about his developmental upside, what he can be and then the fit in the offense. I think we’re good with Tua.”
(So you can make the definitive statement that it is QB Tua Tagovailoa and there is no need for any sort of that kind of talk?) – “Yes.”
(The other side of that is, forgive me for being direct…) – “You’re always direct. My wife doesn’t forgive me but go ahead. (laughter)”
(Actually I figured that was true.) – “You know me. I don’t read any of this stuff so…”
(What do the Miami Dolphins see in QB Tua Tagovailoa that maybe I don’t see and some other people might not see?) – “I will say, Mike (McDaniel) and the offensive staff watched every game and every throw he did and put together this tape that they watched. It was pretty cool. Mike’s vision for how Tua fits into this scheme and what he can do, they’re all very excited about it. I think at the end of the day, obviously Tua is going to have to come in, work with them and do it on the field, but right now there is a very good comfort level in how they feel he fits into what Mike wants to do with our offense. Again, a lot of that too is the run game, the run game part of it.”
(Do you think QB Tua Tagovailoa can be an elite quarterback?) – “Yeah, I mean I can’t say he can’t be. This is a situation now where this will be built around his skillset and what the offense can be and Mike’s vision of how he fits. I wouldn’t say he can’t be. It’s too early. He’s played 20 games, maybe? The first year, he was in and out and missed some games this year. All I know is he’s won games, even with last year. It’s hard to win games in this league and I know people want to say he doesn’t throw the ball downfield but he’s incredibly accurate in what he does and that was the real exciting part for Mike and the coaching staff is his accuracy.”
(When Adam Gase was fired, you were very strong about not wanting anymore dysfunction in this organization and that time was over for us. Why has it been a challenge for you to get this all going in the same direction? What has been your biggest challenge the last few years?) – “Yeah, I think it’s – I don’t think it’s just one thing. Like I said, I have to take blame in that too. I think at the end of the day, we all just try and do our best and get everyone going in the same direction and trying to find ways to win. I think we feel good about where we’re going but at the end of the day, we are excited about Mike (McDaniel) and the coaching staff. These guys, I think, a lot of the players have been around the building up to see him and they’ve communicated how excited they are to be around him and his energy and how he’s doing so we’ll see. But no, you’re right there has been, but I think we’re excited for 2022 and going forward.”
(Obviously, you have a lot of money right now. Do you plan to jump ahead and get started on extending some guys like LB Andrew Van Ginkel, who is eligible for an extension.) – “Yeah. We’ll talk to a few different players. We’ve talked about that. We’re trying to identify because you’ve got to make sure now that a lot of these guys fit to what Mike (McDaniel) and his coaching staff are looking for. Obviously, a guy like Andrew does things the right way – a good guy and at some point we’ll probably reach out and have some discussions with him as well.”
(We would be remiss not to ask the question … but what was your reaction when Brian Flores made the accusations towards you guys as a team, the tanking and everything he mentioned in the lawsuit?) – “I understand the question but it’s an ongoing investigation right now with the lawsuit, so I can’t comment on this. At some point, maybe once it’s done, maybe in the future. But I can’t comment on it right now.”
(How is this going to be different this year, this time? This now is like my sixth coach. You’ve been here 20 years. What makes this era different than what just happened or what happened the time before?) – “I will say that I don’t view this as a rebuild anymore. I think a lot of those were rebuilds. I think we’re in a place now where we have some young talent and young players and I think there is an opportunity for us to take advantage, like you said, with a lot of the things we do and to be able to win games here. I think that’s the exciting part of it and like I told you guys before, I would say the difference in those, they were rebuilds. I think here we’re just trying to supplement and keep building on adding on to what we have to push us forward.”
