Over the weekend, Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News reported that the 49ers may have hired Adam Gase as their head coach last month, had he agreed to make Jim Tomsula his defensive coordinator. Today, Albert Breer of the NFL Network follows up on that story, reporting (via Twitter) that Gase wanted to keep Vic Fangio as his DC in San Francisco, or to hire Vance Joseph from the Bengals for the job. As it turned out, Fangio left the Niners for the Bears and Joseph remained in Cincinnati, but it’s not clear if either coach’s situation would’ve been different had Gase landed San Francisco’s HC job.
Let’s round up a few more items from out of the NFC and AFC West divisions….
- Peyton Manning reportedly told John Elway and the Broncos last week that he’s preparing to play in 2015, and Peter King of TheMMQB.com writes today that the team “definitely” wants its quarterback to return, recognizing that its best chance for a deep playoff run comes with Manning at the helm. King adds that Denver may “quietly rattle some sabers” about reducing Manning’s 2015 salary and/or cap hit, but the MMQB.com scribe cautions that moving too much dead money to 2016 or beyond might be risky, since ’15 could very well be Manning’s last season.
- As Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com details, veteran running back Frank Gore publicly expressed some doubt this weekend on Instagram about how invested 49ers management is in him. However, agent Drew Rosenhaus tells Ed Werder of ESPN.com (Twitter link) that there’s “nothing negative” between Gore and the team, and that GM Trent Baalke has made it clear he wants to bring back the longtime Niner.
- Three players in the West – Rams quarterback Sam Bradford, Cardinals wideout Larry Fitzgerald, and Chiefs edge defender Tamba Hali – lead off Joel Corry’s list of candidates to take pay cuts this year. Here’s the full story from Corry at the National Football Post.
- The San Diego committee tasked with coming up with a plan for a new NFL stadium for the city will meet today with Mark Fabiani, the Chargers‘ point man on stadium issues, according to Tony Perry of the Los Angeles Times. With Stan Kroenke preparing to move forward with a new stadium in Inglewood, there’s a little more urgency in San Diego than there has been in past years to get something done.