The San Francisco 49ers have themselves a new general manager, and he comes in the form of Pro Bowler and Hall of Fame candidate John Lynch. Lynch has spent the last several years as an analyst on the NFL on Fox and though he comes to Santa Clara with no personnel experience, it’s definitely an interesting hire.
It’s all very 49ers, and it’s all just maybe crazy enough to work. Lynch, who played under Mike Shanahan in Denver, has a good relationship with the 49ers’ presumptive new head coach Kyle Shanahan, which is definitely a good place to start.
“I thought he was the catch of this head coaching cycle, I really did,” said Lynch on a conference call with the media yesterday. “It’s one of the best years I’ve seen a coordinator have.”
The concern, of course, is that the 49ers are a team in need of a massive rebuild and is Lynch, a man who doesn’t have experience in building a team, the man to do it?
“…[O]ne thing I’ve told Jed over and over, I know what I don’t know,” said Lynch. “…But, what I do know, I know football. I’ll put my football acumen up with most in this league. I know people and I know how to lead.”
I appreciate that statement and that thought process. With these 49ers, the strong relationship between Lynch and Shanahan is going to be an essential part of the rebuilding process. It’s something CEO Jed York stressed in his press conference earlier this month, and it was something Lynch spoke about repeatedly on the call. He even said the magic word, culture, as in creating a culture where everyone is working together, potentially including people already in the organization.
“I will say for someone like Tom Gamble, he’s got a ton of experience in this business and I’d be a fool not to sit down and soak that up and I’m eager to do that,” said Lynch. “…I’m very appreciative and I can’t wait to communicate how appreciative I am to the people in the building that are working really hard while things are kind of in flux and very soon we are all going to all be working together…Outside, I don’t want to get into specifics, but I can just tell you that we are going to be really aggressive. The response I can tell you has been magnificent from people who really want to be here.”
When asked if he reports to Paraag Marathe, Lynch replied, “Paraag’s a guy that I’m really excited to work with in a number of roles supporting me and this organization. But, I report to Jed York and that’s what I’ve been instructed.”
So, there you go. Will this work? It remains to be seen. If it does, the organization looks like a collective genius. If it doesn’t, well, this is the 49ers. SoCaliSteph and I discuss on this week’s podcast above, and we have a lot of thoughts.
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