San Francisco 49ers radio color analyst Tim Ryan joined "Gary and Larry" on KNBR to discuss the hiring of John Lynch as the team's new general manager. You can add Ryan, who knows Lynch, to the list of names who are excited about the hiring.
What did Ryan think when he first heard that Lynch was being hired to replace former general manager Trent Baalke? "I love it on a hundred levels," Ryan responded. "I'm pretty fired up."
Ryan pointed out that Lynch will have support within the organization. The team will place good people around him and there are already guys like chief strategy officer Paraag Marathe, who deal with things like the salary cap, who will take some of the pressure off of him.
"I think ultimately, though, his inexperience to me – and he'll be a fast study and there's things he's going to have to learn – everybody, and I said this to you guys last week when we were talking about Kyle [Shanahan] and the vision, the vision of the owner, the vision of the head coach, the vision of the GM, the vision of this new director (Adam Peters) that's come in from Denver, it's going to be one vision all headed in the same direction," Ryan said. "I think the dysfunction days are over in San Francisco. Time to grow and try to build a monster together and learn and grow together. So I'm excited."
Ryan also offered up some interesting information in regards to how much Lynch was valued at FOX. Lynch has repeatedly said that he didn't "need" the 49ers job because he had a good job at FOX. That gave him the opportunity to ask the tough questions of 49ers CEO Jed York and Marathe during the interview process. How stable was his job as an analyst at FOX? Apparently, he was slated to have a more prominent role with the NFL broadcaster. Ryan, who worked at FOX for 11 years, offered up the following information.
"Listen, I know this and John wouldn't tell you this, but I know in kind of knowing how FOX works and that hierarchy, and I don't know how much longer Troy [Aikman] is going to go, but John was being groomed to be the A guy" Ryan explained. "And for him to leave that on the table, as I left years on my contract at the table at FOX Sports and came to San Francisco, for him to do it and to change occupations from a broadcast talent to a decision maker and a general manager of a football team, I mean, tremendous respect from me. And it shocked me a little bit because they were grooming him to be Aikman's replacement as the number one crew."
You can listen to the entire interview on KNBR.
Earlier today in Houston, Aikman spoke a little bit about Lynch, who had no front office experience before becoming the 49ers general manager. "I don't doubt for a minute that John Lynch will have success [as Denver Broncos general manager John Elway has had]," Aikman said. "Whether he'll win a Super Bowl within his first couple of years, who knows? But I do think he'll do a great job."
