Kyle Shanahan, through no overt action of his own, has so much leverage on Jed York and Paraag Marathe that it must worry the 49ers' power-brokers a little, or more than a little, or enough to cause thunderous palpitations on the top floor of team headquarters.
And if the Falcons' offensive coordinator is not eager to exert that tangible clout in the next week or so, then Shanahan probably isn't that great a candidate to fix the 49ers, anyway.
Shanahan has so much leverage right now that everything about the 49ers' future will split off in very distinct ways from the moment he meets with York and Marathe early next week (he can officially accept the job then if the Falcons lose the NFC Championship Game on Sunday; if the Falcons win, he cannot officially accept until after the Super Bowl).
Either Shanahan will agree to the relative 49ers status quo _ with York meddling from the top and Marathe granted an unspoken and unlimited amount of power, which is what has led to the last three failed seasons and fired coaches and flood of leaks and innuendoes and losses...
(Good luck with that scenario, Kyle. It might get you a lot of money, but it's the one that New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels rejected, and, reportedly, so did several top general manager candidates.)
Or Shanahan will demand sweeping changes to the 49ers' structure, possibly including power over Marathe and the ability to pick a general manager who also will have power over Marathe, and York will accept those terms because the 49ers have almost nowhere else to turn...
(This is the best possible scenario for anybody who wants the 49ers to succeed again.)
Or Shanahan will make those logical demands and York will refuse, which he apparently did at least tacitly with McDaniels and a series of top GM options, leading to this very desperate situation.
If Shanahan makes these demands and York declines, who knows what York and Marathe will do next, because they've run out of names, burned through the best options and walked away from the middling ones.
It's down to Shanahan, who has the smarts and connections to jump into the 49ers' rebuild _ pick the quarterback, implement an explosive offensive system, hire a good coaching staff, and set up a coherent system for acquiring talent.
That is, if Shanahan is given the room to do this, and the only way to ensure that is to demand it as part of accepting the job.
York and Marathe have bumbled through this long search and now are forced to focus everything on Shanahan, who, at 37, also has a great thing going in Atlanta, is young enough to wait out another year, and has now watched a series of other candidates pull back when presented with the full force of 49ers dysfunction.
Mainly, the focus is on Marathe, who was stripped of his team presidency late in 2015 but has always had York's ear, and was brought back into the inner circle sit with York through all these interviews, along with a Marathe aide, Brian Hampton.
So... the best candidates want to know why Marathe is in the interview, what his role is, and if there is any limit to his power.
My understanding is that McDaniels was York's top choice all along, and negotiations started with the 49ers; but McDaniels and his preferred GM choice, ESPN's Louis Riddick, balked at the heavy involvement of Marathe.
And then McDaniels exited the process.
Yes, McDaniels proved to be the best candidate the 49ers considered because he understood exactly what's wrong with the 49ers, because he was smart enough to demand changes, and he immediately walked away when it was clear the 49ers were still set up to lose.
Again: Why is Marathe in there? Does his presence _ and his lead role in the negotiations _ mean that he's the 49ers' vice-owner?
And will there always be problematic leaks coming from Marathe and York?
These are the questions the top candidates have had for the 49ers, they are absolutely the correct questions, and I presume that Shanahan has had or will have some of them, too.
Michael Silver of the NFL Network is reporting that it is "almost certain" that Shanahan will soon accept the job _ but remember the 49ers reached something close to a tentative agreement two years ago with Adam Gase ... before York at the 11th-hour demanded that Gase accept Jim Tomsula as his defensive coordinator, which prompted Gase to bow out ... and led to Tomsula's hiring by the 49ers.
This season, Gase led the Dolphins to a playoff berth in his first season there, and Tomsula was fired after one season, before Chip Kelly was fired after one season, and the 49ers now don't have a coach or a GM.
Oops!
So Shanahan is set up to seek full power _ and, of course, input over the GM hiring, as the 49ers run a speed-dating round early next week to try to match Shanahan with one of their finalists.
Shanahan probably has as much or more leverage than any NFL candidate with zero previous head-coaching experience has ever had, and probably more than any coach or executive candidate has had on the 49ers at least since Jim Harbaugh in 2011.
It's up to Shanahan to use it _ wisely and powerfully; if he gets York and Marathe upset along the way, that's only further evidence that he's exactly the right man for this risky job.
