Originally posted by NinerGM:
Originally posted by Joecool:
He was more than that. He was VP of Football Ops but was always in the shadows. Let's get stop avoiding the fact that he held more of a role than business and statistics analyst. That position doesn't interview GMs and HCs and is not called the VPFO. He is one of the larger figures in the organization who was responsible for our s**t show.
Dramatic much? This is a term coined by Kawakami. There was never anything "shadowy" about his role; it was clear from the beginning what he was hired to do and why. Does he share responsibility for this organization's performance? Of course. I don't think that's what being said. What's being said is that his role was not shadowy or some dramatic effect where he's this Boogey man with some sort of superpower. That stuff is for click-throughs.
His role wasn't defined. Ralph Barbeiri asked 49ers execs a number of times about his role and did not get a direct answer. That's when the shadiness began. Harbaugh was the one who clarified Marathe's role by taking him out of football things such as the booth.
THEN, for some reason, his title changed to VPFO. That does not mean strictly an analytics guy. Now, he played a key role in the hiring process which directly relates to his actual title of VPFO.
Only a few seem to believe his job was ONLY to help with contracts and analytics while his actions and title exemplifies otherwise.