Harbaugh is too competitive to give up the challenge of the task of winning the NFC West. There is no greater 4 way rivalry in the NFL.
It would be easier to go to a weak division and win and make it INTO the playoffs with good coaching but more likely to fail and never get past the first game against teams like SF or Seattle and make it back to the Superbowl. So THAT is why Harbaugh reportedly nixed the trade.
I think the upper management likes the makeup of the team and believes that Kaepernick could be the right QB if he gets the best support and handling by the best coaches. Perhaps they have lost confidense in Harbaugh since he has had three shots at the title and come up short in all his close encounters with the prize. Good...but just not good enough when it counted.
I also believe that the vitriol between SF and Seattle goes deeper than just the superficial angst portrayed by the media between Harbaugh and Carroll. No doubt the ownership and upper management is pissed that Carroll and the Seahawks have developed a better team in roughly the same time as Harbaugh and proved it with a very surprizing and convincing win against Denver for the Lombardi. They may, for good reason, have lost faith that Jim can get the team into the big show.
Harbaugh may be a jerk and an asshole but he is not stupid. What he NEEDS to do is get right with his GM and get a player to match Harvin for the Niners because it is clear Boldin wasn't the answer against the Hawk Defense...and Crabtree has definitely lost a step so he has to think about a deep threat to replace him also because Sherman made Crabtree look real bad in the Conference Championship. That tip for an int by Sherman against Crabtree will be on replays for a very long time haunting San Francisco in every important game they play in.
Maybe SF ownership has finally figured out that ex QBs don't make the best HCs. It is true...DEFENSE wins championships.
Or perhaps the Niners were never actually close to dealing Harbaugh and this story is bunk.
Considering the Niners were pretty crappy until Harbaugh got there, and have been to the NFC championship game each year he's been the coach, including getting to the SB in one year, I find it hard to credit this report.
The only ways it might make sense are if Cleveland was offering an insane amount in return, or if there is a big issue between Harbaugh and the rest of the 49ers management.
Several sources reported the potential trade. STILL...could be poppycock..
The facts are that Harbaugh is a sullen asshole a lot of the time and maybe he rubs those above him in the organization the wrong way. True he took a team that had great athletes and took them close to a SB win ONCE. The deal is that the NFC West has no room at the top for anything but the elite. The Rams and the Cardinals would be conference champs in the NFC East or South and probably the North as well. The truth is that Seattle played like shit in the Conference Championship game and still won. With the team they have now unless SF upgrades significantly at WR and with Bowman out for who knows how long they are in a hole trying to dig their way out.
Ya it could be nothing but media smoke. OR it could be that as good as Harbaugh has done with the 9ers it just came up short and the top management might be looking for any and all alternatives to get back on top.
Oh ya...the report was that Cleveland was going to throw in a boatload of draft picks if the deal went through.
