A year ago, socalisteph wrote up a piece about San Francisco 49ers executive Paraag Marathe, and his role within the organization. He is involved in the 49ers current interview process, and his involvement could be swinging certain aspects of it.

Bay Area columnist Tim Kawakami has been digging on the 49ers front office and Jed York in particular for a long time now. Kawakami has been spot on with a lot of his reporting about the dysfunction in the 49ers organization. People will choose to believe and not believe what they want, but the past three years have proven that Kawakami has some good sources.

On Monday, Josh McDaniels withdrew his name from the 49ers interview process, and on Wednesday, Louis Riddick was among the GM candidates informed they would not get a second interview. Kawakami is reporting that there were some preliminary negotiations with McDaniels, but the issue of Paraag Marathe was a sticking point. You can check out the full set of tweets below.

Kawakami offered up three questions now that it appears Kyle Shanahan is likely to be the next head coach of the 49ers. He asked:

Is Kyle Shanahan more comfortable w/Marathe's role than McDaniels was? If he isn't, will he threaten to walk? And if Shanahan demands power over Marathe, in writing, or that Marathe can't negotiate the deal, what does Jed do then?

I wrote earlier today about how Shanahan has an almost unprecedented amount of leverage on the 49ers right now. The 49ers have no other candidates for their head coach position, with the rest of their interviewees either hired elsewhere or having removed their name from consideration.

I don’t know if Shanahan can ask for literally anything, but he is in a position to make it very clear what he wants moving forward. Paraag Marathe has proven to be a great negotiator when it comes to player contracts, but his reported involvement in the 49ers many leaks and his connection to Jed York would likely raise at least some questions for Shanahan and the next general manager.

It is entirely possible Shanahan is ready to work with Marathe, and none of this will matter. It is also possible that next week Shanahan will want to get some concessions from the 49ers to make this work. The 49ers and Shanahan will not meet again until Monday at the earliest. That’s when we’ll start to hear more about how this process plays out. We might get little tidbits these next few days, but the real leaks will come next week as the process unfolds.

Sounds like there was at least one major problem when McDaniels and Riddick started negotiations with the 49ers. That'd be: Paraag Marathe. — Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) January 18, 2017

And yes, there were some negotiations between the 49ers and McDaniels, who was Jed's guy from the outset. — Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) January 18, 2017

As discussed last week, McDaniels proved to be the best 49ers candidate by understanding exactly what's wrong with the 49ers. And exiting. — Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) January 18, 2017

Three questions: 1) Is Kyle Shanahan more comfortable w/Marathe's role than McDaniels was? 2) If he isn't, will he threaten to walk? And... — Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) January 18, 2017