49ers, Lynch agree to extension through 2024

SANTA CLARA — John Lynch wasn’t lying Tuesday when he said, “I could tell you think there’s some good news around the corner” regarding contract talks with the 49ers.

Roughly 24 hours later, the defending conference champions and their general manager agreed to terms on a new fiveyear contract extension through 2024, a league source confirmed to The Bee Wednesday. NFL Network was first to report the news.

Extending Lynch, a nine-time Pro Bowl safety and Super Bowl champion with the Buccaneers in 2002, comes weeks after the 49ers made Kyle Shanahan one of the five highest paid head coaches in the NFL on a new six-year extension through 2025. It’s notable Lynch’s new pact runs through 2024. Both were initially given matching six-year contracts when they were initially hired in 2017.

“I love what we’re doing,” Lynch said Tuesday during an interview on KNBR’s Murph & Mac Show. “I love coming to work each day and I think there’s some good news on the horizon and Jed (York) and the York family have been tremendous to me.”

Lynch and Shanahan took over the 49ers following a miserable 214 season under one-and-done coach Chip Kelly, who replaced another one-and-done coach in Jim Tomsula following a 5-11 campaign in place of Jim Harbaugh.

CEO Jed York wanted a clean slate for the coaching staff and front office after years of turmoil. So the team zeroed in on Shanahan to become their new head coach and allowed him his pick his general manager.

Lynch, a FOX analyst at the time, reached out to Shanahan to throw his hat in the ring after the two got to know each other sparingly during production meetings, and Shanahan settled on Lynch as his front office running mate despite Lynch having little executive experience outside of sitting in on the draft process with the Denver Broncos in 2013.

That stemmed from Lynch’s strong relationship with Denver’s football czar, John Elway, who later gave the Lynch permission to hire one of his top personnel men, Adam Peters, who serves as the 49ers’ VP of player personnel.

“He makes every team that he’s a part of better,” York said of Lynch in January before the team left for the Super Bowl in Miami. “He makes every team that he’s a part of a championship-caliber group. We joke and his nickname is Captain America. But like that’s what he is, that’s who he is. He’s real. And a lot of people aren’t real when that’s their persona, but that’s him. He can relate to the players in multiple ways.”

Approaching the fourth season of the Shanahan-Lynch regime, San Francisco has turned into a NFC powerhouse coming off their Super Bowl appearance in February. They’ve had some luck along the way — landing Nick Bosa with the No. 2 pick in the draft after Jimmy Garoppolo was lost early in the 2018 season with an ACL tear comes to mind — though San Francisco appears to be built to contend for the long haul.

They have Garoppolo signed for two more seasons, Bosa under team control on his rookie deal for the next four and are returning nearly all of their members of the coaching staff from last year’s Super Bowl run, including defensive coordinator Robert Saleh and Shanahan’s key offensive lieutenants, Mike LaFleur and Mike McDaniel. They also plan to return 18 of 22 starters from last year’s 13-3 team.

Next up for Lynch now that he’s been given more long-term security: get a deal done for AllPro tight end George Kittle.