Trent Baalke and Jim Harbaugh revealed Baalke has final say on the 53-man roster and the draft. He did not have final say on the 53-man roster when Mike Singletary was coach. Here is Baalke on that subject:

“I’m not a guy with a gavel. Everyone is so consumed with who makes the final decision. I don’t get that consumed with it. Was it a deal breaker? When I went through the process of becoming the general manager it was important to me to be able to make those decisions. When I negotiated my contact that was one thing I was looking for. But I understand this business well enough to know the head coach is going to have a lot of say in the type of players we have. Philosophically we’re very much the same. The type of players he’s looking for is the type of players I’m looking for. If there is a decision one of us doesn’t agree on, if there’s a player he may like and I don’t or I may like but he doesn’t, if we can’t come to a consensus on that player we move on. There’s enough players out there we feel good about that want to be 49ers.”

Why did he want control of the 53?

“As the general manager you like to have some kind of control in terms of the acquisition of players, and control is probably a bad word. Somebody had to be responsible for making the final decision. That was something I asked for and ownership was willing to give me. I’m not going to make a decision the head coach isn’t on board with.”