49ers’ GM Lynch signs contract extension.
It doesn’t take Wednesday’s contract extension to see why GM John Lynch partners so well with 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan.
It merely affirms that.
They’ve built the 49ers from NFL doormat to Super Bowl contender. Last season was not a one-off.
The 49ers ownership is relieved it finally found a tight-knit, productive tandem. Three years ago, this union “came out of the blue,” as Lynch referred to it Tuesday when he hinted that he’d indeed strike a contract extension, one that runs through 2024, a league source confirmed.
Shanahan landed his own extension last month, curiously for a year longer than Lynch’s.
“I don’t know if I’m going to be a lifer at this thing, but I love what we’re doing, I love coming to work each and every day, and I think there’s good news on the horizon there,” Lynch said Tuesday on KNBR AM 680. “Jed (York, the 49ers’ CEO) and
his family have been tremendous to me.
“I’m loving what we’re doing and building.” What he’d love next is finishing off an extension with tight end George Kittle. That is where Lynch and his support staff will have to do some heaving lifting to keep up the good vibes as they begin training camp.
So why do Lynch and Shanahan work so well — obliterating a contrarian report that surfaced last year?
Let’s start behind closed doors. What’s happened in there has stayed in there. If any criticism or grudges exist, they haven’t leaked out or been visibly evident.
Make no mistake, Lynch and Shanahan are not mirror images of each other.
They have different personalities, different natures and perhaps different values. They are not clones.
This is no good cop-bad cop routine.
Both Lynch and Shanahan are personable, yet demanding.
They are proud in their knowledge, yet humble enough to admit errors.
They come off as transparent and forthright, often being blunt and oozing honesty in a sport rife with privacy and paranoia.
It’s too easy to pigeonhole Shanahan as the offensive maestro and Lynch the defensive counterpart based on their NFL histories. They’ve learned to grow in their roles, take lessons from each other and lock arms in a quest to bring the 49ers their sixth Super Bowl title.
“It’s rare to get two guys to come in together with the same deal. That makes me comfortable,” Shanahan said upon their 2017 hiring. “You know you’re going to win together and you’re going to lose together.”
The 49ers lost 14 times in 16 games in 2016, which CEO Jed York pointed out on that introductory press conference, adding: “I believe in these guys and think they’ll be around a lot longer than (six years).”
York approached Shanahan and Lynch with designs on extending their deals before they headed to Miami for Super Bowl LIV, which, in itself, became the watershed moment their tenure must now overcome.
”We have a tremendous partnership,” Lynch said Tuesday. “Kyle was in line first (for a contract), because of a lot of semantics and, frankly, I came in at a good number because I was making good money at Fox.
“I came it at kind of top of market and Kyle didn’t. He was a first-time head coach.”
Lynch was a first-time general manager. Now he is entering his fourth season as one with many more to come.
They preach an “I’ve Got Your Back” mantra. So when cameras caught Lynch not exactly having Shanahan’s back and questioning why his coach didn’t call a timeout before halftime of the Super Bowl, Lynch had some explaining to do.
“I get excited watching these games,” Lynch said. “Not much I can do up there (in a suite), but I’ve got these guys’ backs. It’s not my role to do time management. … Kyle knows that. I watch the game with emotion because I care. That’s all that was.”