The San Fransisco 49ers are at odds with general manager Scot McCloughan, and ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that could play out in favor of the Green Bay Packers.
ESPN reports San Fransisco has placed McCloughan on an extended leave of absence with just over a month before the draft. Sources said McCloughan has been dealing with “personal issues,” and the 49ers want to give him time to deal with those indefinitely.
“Family needs to come first and I lost sight of that with my position at the 49ers,” McCloughan told Sirius NFL Radio. “I will be back in the league at some point and will be very successful.”
Schefter said sources around the NFL believe McCloughan could wind up in Green Bay with his friend Ted Thompson.
“McCloughan and Thompson are longtime friends, and the Packers never filled the void created when John Schneider left to become the Seahawks general manager,” Schefter wrote late Friday.
One source close to McCloughan texted there already are options, and many think Green Bay will be near the top of the list.
Details are fuzzy, but San Fransisco is said to have been bracing for the move for days and believes it is well prepared for the draft in which it will have the 13th and 17th overall picks.
The 49ers are expected to lean more heavily on director of player personnel Trent Baalke and director of pro personnel Tom Gamble, who are widely respected in NFL circles. McCloughan’s brother, Dave, is the team’s director of college scouting.
San Fransisco will likely retain all of McCloughan’s scouting files and reports, but the semi-deposed GM carries all that knowledge in his head and would give any other team in the league a fresh draft perspective, at the very least. He’d be a boon to Green Bay’s personnel department.
Stay tuned for more developments. This story will only get more interesting.
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