A GOLDEN RETRIEVER
Lynch dug Niners out of hole by building through draft, trades
LAS VEGAS — Herman Edwards recalled the phone call as if it took place yesterday. John Lynch, the Hall of Fame safety whom Edwards coached as an assistant with the Buccaneers, was being offered the general manager job with the 49ers. “I said, ‘Hey man, you can do it. You know how to build a team,’ ” Edwards recalled to The Post. “I said, ‘You were with us in Tampa when we built that thing from ashes. You get yourself some smart, tough players.’ ” Edwards was the Buccaneers assistant head coach and Lynch’s position coach handling the secondary for Tampa Bay under head coach Tony Dungy, and they built the team into a perennial contender that eventually won Super Bowl XXXVII, the year after Dungy and Edwards left. Edwards and Lynch built a bond so strong beyond coach-player relationship that Lynch is the godfather of Edwards’ son, Marcus; and Edwards and his wife, Lia, are godparents of Lynch’s daughter, Leah. Edwards was right. Lynch knows how to build a team. The 49ers Lynch built are playing the Chiefs on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium seeking the first Super Bowl title for San Francisco in 30 years. And they’re doing it with key players whose acquisitions have Lynch’s fingerprints all over them — critical roster additions made through the draft and free agency.
Steve Young recalled the phone call as if it took place yesterday. Lynch had just accepted the 49ers GM job.
“He called me on his first day and he said, ‘Steve, what you guys had was phenomenal, and I want to embrace it, use it as a tool for our future and tell guys there’s the standard,’ ” Young recalled to The Post of his conversation with Lynch.
Young succeeded Joe Montana after Montana had brought four Lombardi Trophies to San Francisco, and Young helped lead the Niners to a fifth Super Bowl title in 1994 (their last title). The 49ers went to the playoffs in seven of the eight seasons Young was the starter in red and gold, winning one Super Bowl and losing in the NFC Championship three times.
The 49ers were the standard for consistent excellence back in those days. Lynch is well into the process of replicating that excellence.
Alongside head coach Kyle Shanahan, they came to San Francisco together in 2017, endured two losing seasons in 2017 and ’18, and the arrow has been pointed up since. They went 13-3 in 2019 and lost to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV. The 2021 team lost in the NFC title game, as did last year’s team, after quarterback Brock Purdy suffered an elbow injury to throwing arm. And here we are now. “He has owned the standard,” Young said. “Super Bowls. He’s owned it. What he’s done is he’s created an environment in free agency where everyone wants to come. It’s what Steve Kerr’s created [with the Golden State Warriors]. Trent Williams is here because Trent Williams
chose this place. Christian McCaffrey was traded here, but he chose this place. He made it happen.
“Then he drafted Deebo [Samuel, receiver] and George [Kittle, tight end]. He’s done it both ways — he’s been amazing in the draft, and he’s been amazing at building something that everyone in free agency wants to be at. How else can you possibly get this kind of collection of athletes and stars in the free agency era which is built for everyone to be the same? That is an art that not many have.”
That art, though, has not always been Picasso.
nnn There have been mistakes. Big mistakes. But Lynch and Shanahan have masterfully pivoted and not let those mistakes take down the ship.
Lynch traded three first-round draft picks to move up and draft quarterback Trey Lance at No. 3 overall in 2021. Lance played in eight games for the 49ers, starting four in two seasons before he was traded to Dallas, where he didn’t appear in a game this season.
Lynch and the 49ers survived that because they selected Brock Purdy with the 262nd and final pick in the 2022 draft, and Purdy has become one of the most remarkable modern-day success stories — essentially saving the franchise, considering he was a serious MVP candidate this season and makes less than $1 million a year.
There was Lynch’s act of overt larceny trading for Williams, disgruntled in Washington, for third- and fifth-round picks. He remains one of the top tackles in the NFL. Then the trade for McCaffrey, who missed 23 of 33 games from 2020-21 while with Carolina, yet has been a rock since he got to the Bay Area in week 7 of last year, winning the NFL rushing title this season.
There, too, was the drafting of linebackers Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw, who was panned at the NFL Combine for running a 4.73 in the 40. Samuel — a game-changing, dual-threat receiver/ runner — was drafted by Lynch. So too was Kittle, who’s developed into one of the top few players at his position.
And don’t forget about paying the invaluable Kyle Juszczyk, who plays a position (fullback) the NFL has rendered as obsolete. Juszczyk probably has an AOL account for his email and wears a ”Members Only” jacket.
So, yeah, Lynch knows how to build a team.
“Truth is, Jed York and John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan have built something that is super-resonant to me,” Young said. “Those great teams, those great locker rooms, that great leadership, the spirit of togetherness and selflessness that drove us for all those years, they have created that in spades here … and maybe even better.
“They’ve done a great job, so I want that to get paid off . ... They’ve been to five out of six [NFC] Championships games and a couple Super Bowls. and they’re owner-elite, general managerelite, coach-elite, and Super Bowls have a way of paying that off.
“If they are to win, that would resonate with me that they got paid off for their excellence,” Young added. “That’s what they’ve been. I know the truth. They have been excellent, and them getting paid off by winning the Super Bowl feels right.”