It probably took John Lynch less than an hour to get the question inside 49ers Headquarter. Maybe less than 10 minutes. News broke that assistant general manager Adam Peters was declining interview requests for two open general manager positions and opting to stay with the 49ers.
So what…
“I just had someone come up and say, ‘Hey, man, is there anything I should know? ” John Lynch said with a laugh in a phone interview on Wednesday. I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘I get all these calls that, you know, people infer that you’re leaving.’ I was like, ‘NoI’m fine.'”
No, Lynch is not ready to go anywhere, just like Peters is not ready to go anywhere. First, the 49ers’ top two football executives are both focused on that playoff race, which begins Saturday against the sea hawks. And two, while Peters is the best choice to potentially move on as GM of the 49ers if Lynch chooses to go on TV or elsewhere, that’s not happening right now or likely this offseason.
Lynch said Peters’ decision to withdraw from interviews with the Titans and Cardinals — originally reported by the NFL Network — was his personal choice, which Lynch both appreciates and understands.
“I think Adam just walked in and said, ‘Look, I respect these two places, but I’m very happy here,'” Lynch said. “I think it’s a good thing. You know, Adam is from here (Cupertino) and represents a lot of what we’ve done. It has been great for me. At the same time, I am a friend. I said, ‘Pete, maybe you should at least talk to these people.’ But he was convinced that he was good here. And his family is happy. So I like that, and I think so, we have a place where people want to be.
“We’re focused on this week, but I think there’s a good feeling that we’re going to be a good team and a good organization for a long time to come and people want to be part of that.”
Lynch, of course, was heavily chased by Amazon Prime last offseason and will likely always get mega-money sentiments from the networks. He admitted in November that he nearly took the Amazon job, who is said to be worth $15 million a year, but decided he couldn’t leave the 49ers with “unfinished business.” So if the 49ers win the Super Bowl in February, Lynch might be more likely to take a serious offer. But even then, he seems more than ready to stay.
There’s a lot of stability in this franchise, even after a pretty tumultuous season in which the 49ers had to play three quarterbacks and ended up with probably the best fit of them all – rookie. Brock Purdy – heading to the playoffs and beyond. Lynch and Kyle Shanahan also made the big mid-season trade for Christian McCaffrey, who looks like he’s been here forever since the moment he showed up. They have the No. 1 defense in the league, filled with stars.
The 49ers could win the Super Bowl this season. Maybe not. But six seasons into the Shanahan/Lynch era, they’ve never looked so perfectly prepared to push this further and higher. And together. Why wouldn’t Peters want to hang around during this time of the 49ers’ potential boom?
It was a good jumping off point for my scheduled check-in with Lynch on Wednesday, just after the 49ers practiced in the wind, rain and whatever was pouring out of Levi’s Stadium, as planned for Saturday after- noon.
Here are some of the other highlights of our conversation…
How was training in all that rain?
It was good because it looks like we’re going to play there on Saturday.
Do you think your team is well suited for this kind of weather in a do-or-die game?
I think we’re set up to be (a good rain team). We are quite complete. We do a lot of different things well. We stop the race, we make the ball run well. These are usually the things (that are important in the weather). Brock obviously (didn’t play in extreme weather) grew up in Arizona, but at Iowa State he had to deal with a lot of bad weather. So I think he’s equipped to do that.
You’ve been through three QBs and all that this season, but you feel like you and Kyle have stuck to the same roster building principles. What do you think this season tells us about your process?
The thing that I think I’m probably most proud of, because we’ve spent money since we’ve been here – part of the reason it was a good job to take (was) because they hadn’t (spent a lot of money) before we arrived (Feb 2017) so you want to hear those things, let them promise to. We were quite aggressive. But at some point, you have to strike a balance. And I think last (offseason) was one of those years for us.
That said, we went out anyway, we probably knew we had a big move, and for us, it was two things: re-sign Deebo (Samuel) and then Charvarius District in terms of free agency. Really happy. We were all lined up looking for a top-notch corner. And then I focused on the fact that Charvarius was the guy. He has been amazing for us. I really like everything from his mentality to his abilities.
But after that we had things to do, but we had to be creative and find good value players. Some of these guys, Ray-Ray (McCloud), Oren Burk, Georges Odumthese guys have been really integral.
We have focused on special teams, but one thing that Kyle and I have always agreed on, we don’t just want one guy (who only plays special teams). (Bill) Belichick will, and it has served him well, but we just don’t want guys who are just special teams players. We want guys who can contribute on offense and defense. And I think we’ve definitely seen that from Ray-Ray; Oren is replaced by linebacker with just a few clicks, but he played very well when he did. Ray-Ray’s comeback ability… I feel like he’s just getting started. He’s about to pop one. And George Odum, I think, was dominant. I think he should be an All-Pro special teams player the way he’s been playing, especially lately. I’m really proud of our staff for these moves.
Of course, the focus is on Purdy, a rookie QB playing at this level. But he was a seventh-round pick, the last pick in the entire draft. How close did you come not to take it?
We came in with some sort of stated goal that, hey, somewhere late in the draft, take a quarterback that we really believe in. As we do with the later draft games, the month before I told this story, Steve Slowik, who is now a pro scout and brother of Bobby Slowik, our passing game coordinator, was the area scout. . So his reports were always more about the person than the player. He talks to (Iowa State coach) Matt Campbell. And Matt Campbell was, “This guy changed the program. Just listen to me, you’re gonna have a special player.
We had high marks on him. Probably higher in its first year than its senior. But the process that we usually do, for the second half of the draft, we’ll hand over a bucket of guys (to position the coaches). (QB coach Brian) Griese and (QB assistant coach) Klay Kubiak, we probably had about eight guys, and they really, early in the process, became Brock fans. … And they really went deep, Zoom meetings and stuff, got more and more doomed on Brock. Once we had kind of cleared our checklist of everything we thought we needed, “OK, we need a few more corners…” Once we had done that and Brock was still there, we wanted as a free agent. We didn’t know if it would last. Once we got to that last pick and ticked all the other boxes, it was, “Let’s go and get our quarterback. We love this kid. We are doomed for him, let’s not leave it to chance.
And I never asked Brock, I kept telling myself I’m going to, but I don’t want to beat him up right now, “Would you come as a free agent?” I hope he would have. (Laughs.)
I think the thing that probably surprised all of us is that he’s a better athlete than we anticipated. You’ve seen him run a bit in the state of Iowa, but you never know how that’s going to translate. But he has athleticism. Last week, he got away early in the game and got ahead of a defensive lineman, eventually getting 12-13 yards. I mean, it’s big business when you move the chains. He did it several times.
Things can always change and have often changed this season in this position, but Purdy’s performance right now feels like it Jimmy GaroppoloThe first big splash of 2017, and Garoppolo was immediately your starting QB in 2018. Is Purdy your starter next season?
I know it’s my job, but I really focused on, like, let’s not even go there. Let’s get this stuff out. I’m going to need Kyle’s participation. I have my own thoughts. But I really tried to focus on, let’s just take it as it comes. We will find out.
We find ourselves in a very good situation with a guy for whom we moved a lot to enter (first round pick in 2021) Trey (Lance). We always love his skills. And Brock has been more than we could ever have asked for. We liked him a lot, but I said to people, ‘Yeah, we waited until the last pick in the draft. (Laughs.)
The only thing I will say, the athleticism, putting it in a game, that surprised us. But from day one, he was operating at a high level here. OTA, all that. Everyone looks at each other, “Wow, this guy has guts.” He threw in the little windows, he was effective. He’s been playing from the start, but you never know until you throw him in there. The same can be said now that we are going to play football. How will he respond? But it’s ticked all the boxes so far, so I wouldn’t expect to see anything different.
Plus, having a seventh-round contract, plus Lance’s rookie contract, as your two QBs will definitely help your salary cap next season.
And the way we are organized, we have a lot of well paid guys (in other positions). What is the way you do this? You don’t pay your quarterback what some people pay their quarterback. There was definitely a strategy when we were thinking about moving to Trey and all that. That’s how we were able to keep this team together. It is a possible way. Who knows where we will go? I think we have a good situation, however.
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(Photo: Jeff Bottari/Getty Images)
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