49ers’ York Fires GM Baalke, HC Kelly…Now What?

With a 23–25 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, the San Francisco 49ers finished the 2016 season with a 2–14 record — arguably their worst season in franchise history when you consider they lost 13 straight games.

49ers’ owner Jed York subsequently fired GM Trent Baalke and HC Chip Kelly which now leads the franchise to remake the team for the second time in three years. While York must find a new GM since 2005, Kelly was fired just one year removed after Jim Tomsula was axed the previous season.

Now entering the offseason with no head coach, no general manager — and no particular direction — what do the 49ers do now? Here’s what you should know:

General Manager

• The 49ers will have a projected $87 million in unspent salary in cap space to spend for 2017

“And our general manager and head coach will have the opportunity to spend it however they wish to make sure that we can rebuild this roster.” — Jed York

• With a 2–14 record, they enter the NFL Draft with 11 draft picks, including the 2nd overall pick
• New GM should have the chance to pick the new head coach
• York mentioned “culture” 16 times in 28 minutes of media time so I would assume he wants the GM and HC to get along
• With Colin Kaepernick a free agent, new GM can choose a new quarterback…
• This is supposedly a weak quarterback draft class

Head Coach

• Chip Kelly inherited a flawed roster for just one season — what did you expect?
• Should the 49ers have fired Baalke last season? Had this happened, there wouldn’t be a need to find another coach in back-to-back seasons
• With three coaches in three seasons — ’14 Harbaugh, ’15 Tomsula, ’16 Kelly — who would want to work for York? No one wants to be put on a short leash
• Usually, head coaches are given three years of coaching and roster adjustment to create desired team identity
• The 49ers owes $30 million into coaches and executives no longer with the team.

Team Strengths

• Despite a lackluster offense, the 49ers were the 4th ranked rushing offense (126.9 ypg) with the fifth most rushing attempts (28.6 cpg) despite being down in most games
• Promising young defensive players include DE Arik Armstead, DE DeForest Buckner, CB Jimmie Ward, CB Reshard Robinson, OLB Aaron Lynch
• Promising young offensive players include TE Vance McDonald, HB Carlos Hyde, RT Trent Brown, RG Joshua Garnett

Team Weaknesses

• No long-term answer at quarterback
• Re-sign Colin Kaepernick? Acquire QB via free agency (NYJ Ryan Fitzpatrick) or trade (NE Jimmy Garoppolo)? NFL Draft (UNC Mitch Trubisky)?
• Decimated front seven led to the worst rushing defense with 165.9 rushing yards per game
• Outside of Aaron Lynch, the 49ers lacked a real 3–4 edge pass rusher which led to…
• The worst team in the league against deep passes which yielded opposing quarterbacks league-worst in passer rating (128.8) and QBR (98.8)
• Worst passing offense in the NFL with just 197.9 passing yards per game…one of the worst rosters in regards to offensive skill positions
• Offense was known to be nonexistent in the second half of football games; struggled mightily on red zone opportunities

At the end of the day, it always starts from up top — which is probably the most worrisome element to the 49ers.

Jed “You Don’t Dismiss Owners” York is the sole reason why the San Francisco 49ers were ranked by ESPN as the Worst Franchise in Sports, period.

Eddie DeBartolo Jr. made horrible hires before hiring Bill Walsh in ‘79…York once did the same before getting Harbaugh in ‘11…will the 49ers be lucky enough to strike gold three times?