York learned from Walsh good people will get hired away

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The 49ers are prepared to lose their offensive coordinator more than any time since 2005, 49ers president and CEO Jed York said Tuesday on "Chronicle Live."

Offensive coordinator Greg Roman has head-coaching aspirations. He is a finalist for the Penn State vacancy, and York said he learned from the legendary Bill Walsh that turnover on the coaching staff is just part of running a good organization.RELATED: Roman sees Penn State as a 'lifetime job'
"I got to spend a little bit of time with Bill when he came back to the team as the general manager role," York said. "He always talked about if you want the best people -- you only have one head coach -- you're going to lose people."If you want to have the best people, you have to let them go. And I'd love to have Greg Roman here for our offensive coordinator for a long time. But I'm never going to hold anybody back if they're going to get a head-coaching opportunity, and that's what their dream is."The reason the 49ers are better-equipped to handle a change at offensive coordinator is because the playbook would not change. Jim Harbaugh is an offensive-minded head coach, while previous defensive-minded coaches Mike Nolan and Mike Singletary were at the mercy of their offensive coordinators."I talked about that when we were going into that coaching search, that we wanted an offensive-minded head coach because you know that if Jim is your head coach, he can step in and be the coordinator if he needs to be," York said. "I don't think that's what he's going to choose to do, but he's got the ability to do that, and you keep the continuity on offense. And for the most important position in all of sports, you need that continuity for your quarterback."

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