Grant Cohn: 49ers’ promotion of Tom Gamble turns up heat on Trent Baalke

Trent Baalke has to see where this is going.

His head is under the guillotine. If the 49ers don’t show progress next season, they probably will drop the blade on his neck.

The Niners made this clear on Monday by promoting Baalke’s potential replacement, Tom Gamble, to assistant general manager - the highest position a football executive can reach before he becomes a GM. You can imagine Gamble sharing Baalke’s office and sitting on Baalke’s lap. Most recently, Gamble has been the 49ers’ senior personnel executive, a position he held since returning to the team last season.

Baalke has to feel the pressure. Last season, the roster he put together won just five games. Most experts expect the team to win even fewer games next season. His stock is down.

With good reason. Here are five of Baalke’s football sins, not necessarily the gravest.

1. Drafting Tank Carradine.

2. Drafting Vance McDonald.

3. Drafting Corey Lemonier.

4. Drafting Marcus Lattimore.

5. Eliminating Jim Harbaugh.

Unlike Baalke, Gamble is not implicated in any of these sins.

Meanwhile, Gamble’s stock is up. Has been for a while. Many NFL owners include him on the list of candidates to hire as general manager. Al Davis, who understood executive talent, tried to hire Gamble as GM of the Raiders numerous times, but offered him only a day-to-day contract and, according to a source, Gamble’s wife nixed the deal. Thought her husband was worth more. Davis made lots of mistakes in his finals years running the Raiders. This was one of his worst.

Instead of running the Raiders, Gamble worked with the 49ers from 2005 to 2010 as their director of pro personnel. In 2011, they promoted him to director of player personnel, putting him in charge of both NFL and college scouting.

Two years later Gamble left the Niners and moved back east to work for the Eagles. His dad, former Eagles general manager Harry Gamble, lived in Philadelphia and was ill. Gamble wanted to be near him, otherwise he never would have left the Niners. Harry died in 2014 and Gamble returned to Santa Clara one year later. The Niners door always was open to him.

Gamble also has worked for the Colts, Jets, Panthers and Ravens. As they say, he has paid his dues.

Gamble is a terrific judge of talent. If I were in a position to hire a general manager, I would hire him. It will probably take just a year or two before the Niners or some other team makes him its GM.

The Niners seem to love Gamble. Each of the past three seasons he has been with the franchise, they’ve promoted him. Chip Kelly seems to love Gamble, as well. The Niners’ new head coach worked with Gamble when he was in Philadelphia, and the two reportedly get along. As opposed to Kelly and Baalke, who already “have problems” according to NFL Network’s Brian Baldinger.

Baalke has to see where this is going.

When the 49ers announced Gamble’s promotion, the PR staff sent out an e-mail containing just one quote which the Niners attributed to Baalke. The quote sounded enthusiastic.

“Tom is an accomplished talent evaluator who grew up around the game of football. Having spent the last 28 years of his life in the NFL, his wealth of experience has been invaluable to our organization for almost a decade. Tom is a hard-working professional and more importantly a good man. We are excited he will continue to play an integral role in the development of our team.”

It’s possible Baalke wrote that. You also can imagine a scenario in which the team wrote it for him and told Baalke to OK it. The words in the quote don’t exactly sound like Baalke’s.

In fact, if you go to 49ers.com you’ll see those words are almost the same as the ones the team used to describe Gamble in his bio as senior personnel executive. “A successful talent evaluator with a plethora of NFL experience,” the Niners wrote.

Compare that to Baalke’s quote which describes Gamble as “an accomplished talent evaluator” with a “wealth of experience.” Sounds kind of familiar. Sounds like Baalke or someone else lifted parts of the press release from 49ers.com. If that’s the case, it doesn’t seem Baalke spent much time on the press release praising his potential replacement.

One thing we know. The Niners love Gamble and so does the rest of the league. The Niners never have seen hiring Gamble as much of a gamble. He is a living breathing reminder to Baalke that time is running out for him. Produce something positive right now, find a direction, create a talented core or be gone. His replacement is on the scene.

Baalke has to see where this is going.

Grant Cohn writes sports columns and the “Inside the 49ers” blog for The Press Democrat’s website. You can reach him at grantcohn@gmail.com.