Earlier this week, there was a report that Chip Kelly and Trent Baalke are on a “collision course” if the San Francisco 49ers continue losing games. There will be something to answer for if this team finishes in the dumps, but for the time being, things seem to be fairly smooth between the two of them.

On Wednesday, Kelly talked about their working relationship. The discussion opened with someone asking about the comfort level in place with Baalke on the road scouting as much as he does. Kelly did not think it was a strange, and went on to detail how it works, and how they work together.

We have not heard any anonymous rumblings of problems between the two. The “collision course” report seemed sufficiently general, and less about how the relationship is right now. We also heard some comments from Ted Robinson that seemed to raise questions about the coaching staff. But again, we are not getting the rumblings of friction that we started to hear before Jim Harbaugh departed.

And so, for the time being, the relationship goes on. It appears to be improved from the relationship Kelly had with Howie Roseman, but as I’ve said before, I think Kelly probably sees a “football guy” in Baalke, and that leads to a better relationship.

Whatever the case, the team will continue to stink, Trent Baalke will continue to be out scouting, and we’ll wait and see what happens.

What is it about how the building is set up that you guys feel comfortable as an organization to have Trent Baalke scouting as much as he does during the week?

“I’m confused. That’s his job.”

I don’t think every general manager spends as much time on the road as he does, but--?

“That’s his choice. It’s just, the guys who aren’t on the road are watching tape in their office. So, it’s just, do you want to watch it live or do you want to watch it, you know, and I think what Trent does a good job of is when you’re not watching the tape in your office, you’re actually out there at the colleges, you’re getting more background information on the individual player that you’re looking at. So, say it’s the quarterback at Cal. You can watch 11 games on the quarterback at Cal in your office or you can also watch him in person and then talk to [University of California head coach] Sonny Dykes about him. So, there’s plus or minuses, but if anything occurs here, as [Sacramento Bee reporter] Matt [Barrows] alluded to last week, he’s only a phone call away. So, if something were to happy, right, we could have a conversation.”

Did you find the phone?

“I did find the phone. So, that was a good thing. We met on it after last week when Matt said you could actually call him. I was like, ‘I did not know that but now I do know that.’ So, with him being on the road, the fact that he is just a phone call away, if something, but on a day-to-day basis here, there’s not really unless there was an explosion in the kitchen or something, I don’t what Trent being here, he’s here Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. I talk to him when he leaves. Usually he leaves after practice on Wednesday to go somewhere to watch a Thursday game. He may stay out on Friday and then he’s back on Saturday or meets us at the game site on Saturday. So, I think the flow of it’s pretty good and the unique combination of, whenever Trent is not here, [assistant general manager] Tommy Gamble is here and whenever Tommy Gamble’s not here, Trent is here. So, I think they’ve worked out a really good schedule from that standpoint.”

At this point in the season, do you guys talk about this is what we need in the future or are those talks about the future?

“Yeah, we’ve had conversations like that. We talk daily. Whether it be the first thing in the morning or at the end of the day. It’s, before we leave, we’ll get together or the first thing in the morning where maybe our third-down meeting went really long and Trent left and it was 10-o’clock or 10:15 or 10:30 when our meeting ended on Tuesday night. Then, the first thing I do when I get in here at 5:45 is I’ll get a run by Trent’s office and we’ll get a chance to catch up if we didn’t meet the night before. We meet daily.”