To suggest John Lynch might be on the hot seat entering 2025 is assuredly a strong take, but it’s one a prominent NFL insider just made.
From the outside, it might make a little sense why some would think San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan would be on the hot seat.
After all, following a 2024 campaign that saw the Niners go 6-11 after being the league’s top-spending team (cash, not cap space), it’d be easy to point the finger and Lynch and Shanahan to ask what went wrong.
Then, in light of three consecutive deep postseason runs that included trips to the NFC Championship game at the very least, it’s also easy to criticize the duo for not getting the job done despite boasting one of the NFL’s best rosters during that span.
Perhaps this is what NFL.com insider Gregg Rosenthal was wondering, especially pertaining to Lynch, whom he questions might be on the hot seat in light of CEO Jed York’s now-noteworthy efforts to cut roster costs entering 2025.
“This is absolutely a transition year, and John Lynch has to earn that money,” Rosenthal said on NFL Network. “He has done such a great job over the years, but you do wonder if they have another bad year. This has been an arranged marriage between him and Kyle Shanahan for a long time. Do they stay together forever? He has almost talked about wanting to move on.”
Fellow panelist and NFL analyst Mina Kimes subsequently pointed out how Lynch and Shanahan botched the 2021 trade-up for quarterback Trey Lance, who flamed out after two failed seasons and left the top end of the Niners’ subsequent draft classes awfully bare.
Perhaps Lynch and Shanahan deserve blame for that, but landing on quarterback Brock Purdy with the last pick in 2022 nearly absolved them from further ridicule.
Still, Lynch being on the hot seat is a strong, strong take.
49ers aren’t putting John Lynch on the hot seat anytime soon (if ever)
York might have had a change of heart with regard to his team’s high-spending ways, and that’s understandable. Even Lynch acknowledged as much back earlier this spring.
However, on the 10-year anniversary of “mutually” parting ways with head coach Jim Harbaugh while aligning with then-general manager Trent Baalke, York won’t soon forget the vast tumult that surrounded the franchise for the following two years before Lynch and Shanahan were given near-limitless control in 2017.
Two years later, York’s Niners were in the Super Bowl under Shanahan and Lynch’s direction. And San Francisco has remained a top contender nearly every season since.
Exactly how much roster influence Lynch has isn’t clear. But, what is clear is Lynch is the vocal piece for the franchise, a role York did not do well in during the post-Harbaugh era. Plus, Lynch was vital in bringing a level of respectability back to the 49ers, which was lost to York in 2015 and 2016.
In many ways, York needs Lynch more than Lynch needs York and the Niners.
Both sides know it, too.
Hat tip to Sports Illustrated’s Grant Cohn for the find and quote transcription.
