The San Francisco 49ers sure are dragging this out. They have interviewed several candidates for their vacant general manager job and that list now appears to be down to three men, two of which are Green Bay Packers executives Brian Gutekunst and Eliot Wolf.
Both men, along with Minnesota Vikings executive George Paton, will get second interviews.
#49ers will have GM candidates Eliot Wolf, Brian Gutekunst — both from #Packers — along with #Vikings exec George Paton for 2nd interviews
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 18, 2017
Interestingly, the man we thought would be the leading candidate — Wolf — appears not to be. Michael Silver is reporting that Gutekunst is leading the pack.
Regardless of who gets the GM job, it appears his coach will already be selected for him. Multiple reports have the 49ers signing Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan as soon as his team’s season is over (which will hopefully be this Sunday).
It appears the 49ers are going about this the opposite way that most teams do. They’re giving their coach a say in who the GM will be, rather than allowing the GM to choose the coach.
Regardless, it appears the Packers will be losing another member of their front office this offseason.