San Francisco 49ers interviewing George Paton for general manager position

The San Francisco 49ers in the midst of their search for a new general manager. One assistant they are interviewing is the Minnesota Vikings’ George Paton.

The San Francisco 49ers have fired both former head coach Chip Kelly and general manager Trent Baalke. Owner Jed York is clearly going with a clean slate for the 2017 NFL campaign. While many have wondered if York will end up hiring a head coach or general manager first, it makes too much sense to not go general manager first.

The idea is that dysfunctional San Francisco can sell a prospective general manager candidate on building a once-proud football team from the ground up. One guy that the 49ers are targeting for its general manager post is Minnesota Vikings Assistant General Manager, George Paton.

Paton has been with the Vikings organization for the last 10 seasons. He has worked with general manager Rick Spielman in rebuilding the Vikings defense the last few years for head coach Mike Zimmer. Minnesota finished 8-8 in 2016 and missed the NFC Playoffs due to a myriad of injuries.

While most organizations are targeting general manager candidates from either the Ron Wolf tree of the Green Bay Packers or the Bill Belichick tree of the New England Patriots, Paton has long been a candidate for a general manager gig with the Vikings.

Getting to pry Paton away from Spielman might be difficult, but Paton has to realize that Spielman isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. He’s done a fine job making the Vikings competitively annually in a tough NFC North division.

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With the Vikings being very much a defensive-minded team, does that mean hiring Paton would indicate the 49er go with a defensive-minded coach? The offense sputtered the last two years with Jim Tomsula and Kelly coaching the team. Maybe rebuilding this team through the defense is the way to go?