Reinfeldt turns down 9ers front office job, Falcons CAO Anderson also interviewed

Seattle Seahawks VP of Football Operations Mike Reinfeldt has turned down the 49ers for the front office vacancy Tuesday. He interviewed last month for the still undefined postion title, which was believed to be the single authority of the franchise in player personnel matters & capmesiter, much like the role of Ozzie Newsome in Baltimore.

Reinfeldt should have the NFL Executive of the Yr. IMO for the biggest coup of the last FA offseason, retaining Hasselbeck, Walter Jones, & Shaun Alexander with the club. That was the greatest single factor that propelled them into the last SB. I think Reinfeldt knew that once Jones & Hasselbeck were re-signed that would sway the then undecided & FP-designated ALexander to resign for the 1-yr. contract, & he was the NFL's MVP.

Reinfeldt said he has decided to "stay put in Seattle." Falcons Chief Adminstrative Officer Ray Anderson has also interviewed for this job whose title & duties have never been named by the 49ers. The team could not confirm that an affoer has been extended yet to him after teh Reinfeldt withdrawal.

HC Mike Nolan has stated that he wanted a "seasoned NFL exectuive" in the job, & Reinfeldt was clearly his 1st choice. It was also known that Nolan wanted to fill the position ASAP to have someone on board to help with FA & the upcoming April draft, where the 49ers hold the 7th pick & are generally believed to be shopping it to a team wanting to trade up in exchange for multiple later picks & a veteran player.

I think Anderson will get an offer from them b/c of the longstanding relationship between the 49ers & Atlanta coaches Jim Mora Jr. & Knapp, both of whom came from the 9ers 3 yrs. ago, & both have recommended Anderson.

This post has been edited by Jojo on Feb 15 2006, 02:30 PM

Wait, didn't Nolan want total control when he got to San Fran? I thought that was one of his lynchpins for taking the job. Now he's giving it up already?

Earlier in the year, namely after problems began w/ Alex Smith's supposedly small hands, Nolan said he realized he needed an experience football guy in the front office, because it was obvious the people in place were good @ business, but not personnel. He's still the de-facto GM.

No, Nolan will still have final say in decisions. I think the main point was to put a more knowledgable "football guy" in the business side of operations to help with contract negotiations, salary cap issues, etc. While John York cleared house of former GM Donahue and the coaching staff, he left intact the business operations guys that had been assembled before and during Donahue's time as Niners GM. Those guys (Paraag Marathe, for example) pretty much all come from business backgrounds and are into the dollars and cents. Nolan wants a guy in there that understands better the football part of the equation to assist them making better decisions. Like not resigning guys like Garcia and J.J. Stokes, only to end up cutting them and taking a large salary cap hit.

This post has been edited by niners fan on Feb 15 2006, 02:33 PM

Anderson was an assistant GM in Atlanta when Reeves and Wolf were here and the capologist in 2004. then he got promoted to CAO. he is a very good guy (I have met him personally) and deserves a shot as at least a consulting GM styple position somewhere.

Was he the guy who was canned by McKay at the beginning of the year? Reeves' guy, stuck around for a year to help McKay adjust, etc.

Wolf is the guy you are thinking of. Wolf was Reeves pawn. Anderson was brought in as Wolf's assistant by Wolf but he actually had a mind of his own and he was the big force behind gpersuading Reeves to make the trade up for Vick in 2001 and was the main guy who was scouting the guys in 2001. after 2001 his role diminished because reeves got cocky. then Reeves turned in 2 horrible drafts under Blank and Blank got fed up with him and canned Reeves and basically all of Reeves coaches except for some of the defensive and ST guys.

I beg to differ.

Reeves got canned b/c Team Vick tanked after Mr. Mexico himself got injured in a preseason game, & he was basically the whole Atlanta offense..... hence the term "Team Vick" as I chistened it that yr. There were multiple posts here then about Atlanta screwed up by putting all their eggs in one basket. Reeves simply gambled on Vick & lost. The only positive result that came from it was their drafting Matt Schaub, who was a later-round bargain coming off his serious shoulder injury in his sr. yr. at Virginia -- subtract the injury, surgery & a yr's rehab & he is easily top 5 material.

This is big for Seattle. Reinfeldt is generally known as one of, if not, the best "cap guys" and contract negotiators in any Front Office in the NFL. While no one was concerned that he'd leave Seattle for 'Frisco, it was still a slim possibility.

After the magic that Reinfeldt pulled last year getting everyone signed, hopefully he can repeat this year. Either he or Tim Ruskell deserves NFL Exec. of the Year.