Slow start not new for 49ers executive

Year 3 success would follow pattern of unique career

Last year, after he was hired despite having zero executive experience, 49ers general manager John Lynch was asked about his nontraditional path from a Fox broadcast booth to a front office.

In response, Lynch noted his entire football career had been unique.

At Stanford, where he finished as an All-America safety, he spent his first two seasons as a never-used quarterback. In the NFL, where he finished with nine Pro Bowl selections, he didn’t become a full-time starter until his fourth season.

“So,” Lynch said, “there’s a lot of things in my life that haven’t been conventional.”

Two seasons into his latest football job, Lynch’s history should be comforting for restless 49ers fans: The Stanford graduate, Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist and well-respected broadcaster has enjoyed gobs of success, but it hasn’t come overnight.

Now, after an early GM tenure featuring mixed results, this coming offseason would be an opportune time for Lynch to kick-start his career in the same way he did at Stanford and Tampa Bay.

The 49ers will enter year three of their down-to-the-studs rebuild with two straight seasons of at least 10 losses and significant roster holes remaining at edge rusher, cornerback, wide receiver and inside linebacker. They have just five draft

picks, having traded a 2019 fifth-round selection and a seventh-rounder, but have the NFL’s third-highest amount of salary-cap space.

To be clear, this pivotal offseason isn’t all on Lynch: He has a joint partnership with head coach Kyle Shanahan on personnel decisions, but it’s the GM who is most closely associated with their roster moves. This season, it’s been Lynch’s Twitter handle to which fans have directed complaints about the regime’s 2017 draft. That 10-man group began with five picks that range from disastrous to shaky: defensive tackle Solomon Thomas (first round), inside linebacker Reuben Foster (first), cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon (third), quarterback C.J. Beathard (third) and running back Joe Williams (fourth).

Foster, who slipped in the draft because of character concerns, was released in November after his third arrest and Williams was released in August without playing a regular-season snap. Meanwhile, Thomas, a No. 3 pick, has four career sacks, Witherspoon was benched twice this season and Beathard, who took over for the injured Jimmy Garoppolo, lost his job to third-stringer Nick Mullens.

Making those five selections uglier: The 49ers gave up fourth-, fifth- and seventhround picks to trade up for Foster, Williams and Beathard, respectively.

Despite that start, however, no one is linking Lynch to Matt Millen, another successful player and broadcaster who flopped after becoming the Lions’ GM with no front-office experience.

And that’s because there have been finds mixed in with the flops. Most notable among those is Pro Bowl tight end George Kittle, a 2017 fifthround pick who turned out to be one of the best selections in his draft. In addition, the 2018 haul, headlined by right tackle Mike McGlinchey (first round), wide receiver Dante Pettis (second) and inside linebacker Fred Warner (third), is encouraging.

And his second draft suggests Lynch has done a better job of trusting his instincts in his new job.

Last year, Lynch, among the hardest-hitting safeties in NFL history, initially had strong misgivings about Witherspoon, who often shied away from contact at Colorado. He became convinced Witherspoon would change in the NFL based partly on a conversation with his college coach, but Witherspoon’s finesse tackling has been an issue in his second season.

Similarly, Lynch didn’t have Williams on the 49ers’ draft board because he questioned his love for football after the running back “retired” before returning to Utah during his final season. However, Shanahan thought Williams was an ideal fit for his offense. And Lynch reversed course after a phone conversation with Williams hours before the 49ers drafted him.

After his first season, Shanahan said Williams needed to have more “urgency.” The player hasn’t resurfaced in the NFL since he was released Aug. 31.

The back-and-forth between Lynch and Shanahan regarding Williams is known because Lynch shared the story with reporters during last year’s draft.

It’s an example of Lynch’s transparency. And it’s in stark contrast to his tight-lipped predecessor, Trent Baalke, who once said of the 49ers: “When are we ever transparent?”

Lynch has generally hit the right notes when speaking publicly, but there have been exceptions. In November, for example, Lynch said in a radio interview he thought the 49ers had enjoyed “two good drafts” since he’d been hired. Perhaps it was a momentary slip. After all, Lynch knows about genuine achievement. And in 2019, and beyond, he’ll have a chance to replicate the type of success he, eventually, enjoyed in his playing career.

Icon Sportswire via Getty Images It took John Lynch a while to assert himself as a player while at Stanford and in the NFL. His first two drafts have not gotten rave reviews, but he has had some finds mixed with the flops.

Michael Zagaris / Getty Images Niners cornerback Richard Sherman (left) was a free-agent acquisition by second-year general manager John Lynch, who previously worked as a broadcaster.

D. Ross Cameron / Special to The Chronicle In GM John Lynch (left) and head coach Kyle Shanahan, the 49ers hired two men with no experience in those jobs.