Grant Cohn: 49ers’ dash for Kyle Shanahan could encounter a wrinkle

Jed York thinks he hit a home run with the potential hire of Kyle Shanahan.

York was patient at the plate. He didn’t swing at the first pitch. He worked the count, laid off the sliders in the dirt and when he found a pitch he liked, he crushed it down the left field line.

The ball still is flying through the air. It’s flying in slow motion, and it hasn’t reached the fence yet. Can’t reach the fence until Shanahan officially accepts York’s offer to become the 49ers’ next head coach. And that can’t happen until after the Super Bowl.

The ball is starting to hook to the left. Every passing day, the ball hooks a little more toward the left field foul pole. York is jogging down the first-base line waving his hands toward fair territory like Carlton Fisk in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series. Waving is all York can do. Only God knows where the ball will land.

In this case, God is Arthur Blank, owner of Atlanta Falcons. Blank will determine if York’s fly ball is a walk-off or just a long strike. Blank is all-knowing and all-powerful.

Pretend you’re Blank. You’re the co-founder of Home Depot, you’re worth $3.3 billion and your team has reached the Super Bowl for the first time since you bought the franchise in 2002.

This year, you’re opening a new stadium - Mercedes-Benz Stadium - and you need to sell Personal Seat Licenses. You still had more than 20,000 to sell on Jan. 18.

If you’re going to sell those expensive PSLs, you need to give your fans a team that projects a championship future beyond just this season. And you can’t give them that future if you lose Kyle Shanahan in a week and a half.

Your team is in the Super Bowl because of Shanahan’s offense. It’s the best in the league. If he leaves for the 49ers, you’ll have to find a new offensive coordinator and you won’t find one who’s anywhere near as good as Shanahan. The best you may get is Chip Kelly, who knows less about the passing game than your quarterback, and whose zone-read running game doesn’t fit your personnel.

No matter whom you get to replace Shanahan - Kelly or someone else - your players will have to learn a brand new system, learn all new terminology and develop trust and familiarity with another play-caller who may not be that good.

No one will expect your team to return to the Super Bowl any time soon. You’ll be a one-year wonder and you won’t sell all your PSLs.

What are you going to do?

Here’s what I would do if I were Blank.

I would call Shanahan into my office this weekend after he finishes his second interview with the 49ers. On my desk, I’d place a closed briefcase.

“I hear you’ve told the 49ers you’ll be their head coach,” I’d say. “I’m asking you to change your mind. You can do better, Kyle. Stay here one more year.

“If you go to the 49ers, you won’t have Matt Ryan. You won’t have Julio Jones. You won’t have All-Pro center Alex Mack. You won’t have a quality defensive coordinator. But, you will have a terrible front office. You’ll be totally on your own. You’ll win four games next season if you’re lucky, and five games the season after that.

“The 49ers are beneath you, Kyle. You’ll have better opportunities in 2018. That’s when the Colts probably will fire their head coach, Chuck Pagano. You could replace him and inherit Andrew Luck. Doesn’t that sound better than inheriting Colin Kaepernick or whomever the 49ers get to play quarterback next year?”

Now, I’d open the briefcase. Shanahan stares at a load of cash.

“If you stay here one more season,” Blank says, “I’ll promote you to assistant head coach and pay you a head coach’s salary.

“In the briefcase is $5 million. It’s yours. After taxes, you would keep about $2.7 million. If the 49ers pay you $6 million next season, you would keep $3 million after taxes in California. That’s a difference of $300,000. I can you give you a check for $300,000 right now if you’d like. It’s only money. I have more of it than the Yorks.

“I promise I’ll give you my blessing in 2018 to leave and become a head coach somewhere else. I’ll even promote you to other teams. They will fight over you. And they will offer you more money than the 49ers.”

“How does that sound, Kyle?”

I think we know how that sounds. It sounds like the groans of a million 49ers fans as Jed York’s fly ball sails foul.

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.