Jim Tomsula is charged with keeping the San Francisco 49ers in contention in a deep NFC West despite massive overhauls within the organization.
The biggest change could be considered the coach himself, who takes over for the departed Jim Harbaugh.
CEO Jed York chose an analogy that hits close to home when discussing the move from the highly successful Harbaugh to the inexperienced Tomsula.
"Culture is huge. That's the difference between a championship-caliber team and a championship team," York told The MMQB's Emily Kaplan. "You look at the Golden State Warriors. They were the dumbest team in the NBA for letting Mark Jackson go, who won the most games in the franchise's history. How could you be so dumb? They bring in Steve Kerr, who has been around the game for a long period of time but has never coached before. Kerr changes the culture, comes in with a different perspective, and look what happens."
On a certain level that comparison works when considering the previous regime's relationship to management; on others, it falls apart. Tomsula has some head coaching experience -- certainly more than Kerr -- from his days in NFL Europe and a stint as the 49ers' interim head coach in 2010.
The bigger difference could be considered the ability to communicate, where Kerr shined due to a stint working in the media. Tomsula's first brush with the recorder-brandishing mob went spectacularly terrible.
One thing is certain from Kaplan's exhaustive piece: The players uniformly love their new coach.
As we sit one week before training camps open, we still have doubts whether or not Tomsula can overcome the talent drain on the field, with Justin Smith, Patrick Willis, Chris Borland and Anthony Davis retiring and Mike Iupati, Michael Crabtree and Frank Gore leaving in free agency.
Kerr certainly didn't have to deal with losses like that in his first season.
*The latest Around The NFL Podcast discusses the eight most intriguing training camp battles heading into the season. *
