49ers make curious hire in John Lynch

John Lynch is going to be running the San Francisco 49ers as their new general manager. You didn’t read that sentence wrong.

The 49ers used to be one of the model franchises of the National Football League. In the 1980s, the team won four Super Bowls with Joe Montana under center. In the 1990s, the team continued to be at the top of the sport, winning another championship in 1994 with Steve Young and Jerry Rice leading the way. All of that success came with Eddie DeBartolo Jr. as owner, something he unfortunately is no longer.

With Jed York owning the team (the nephew of DeBartolo), things have begun to take a drastic turn in the wrong direction. San Francisco was terrible for much of the 2000s but then made nice hires in general manager Trent Baalke and head coach Jim Harbaugh. The moves resulted in three consecutive NFC Championship Game appearances, only to fall short of a Lombardi Trophy each time.

Now, with both Harbaugh and Baalke gone, York has made his most curious move yet. With a head coach vacancy sign still posted (Kyle Shanahan will be taking the job once Atlanta’s season is over on Sunday), York tabbed somebody no one had known was even a candidate, giving him a massive six-year contract. Lynch has never worked in an NFL front office in any capacity, spending his retirement as a broadcaster for FOX sports.

Whether or not Lynch proves to be a quality choice remains to be seen, but San Francisco fans ought to be concerned. The 49ers were busy throughout the month interviewing people with real resumes in this space, including Louis Riddick and Eliot Wolf. Either would have been a fantastic choice, with years in scouting and personnel rooms. Lynch has none of that, something that could be very problematic.

Going into the offseason strategy is going to be fascinating for Lynch. He has three months to put together his team of people, and then start pouring over college tape to figure out his gameplan come the NFL Draft. This is a huge task for a man who has been within an organization for years. To do so in this timeframe is going to be beyond challenging.

Lynch is one of the greatest players in NFL history. He played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the majority of his career, watching them go from a sad-sack franchise to a Super Bowl champion in 2002. He hopes now to watch the same transformation, this time from a luxury box high above the field.

Hopefully for Lynch, and the 49ers, it doesn’t prove to be too far away from his comfort zone.