As a child, John Lynch was never allowed to miss school. However, there was one rare exception. It was the day of the NFL Draft. Lynch's father would allow his son to miss a day of school to watch the NFL Draft on ESPN with him. It was something special that the two shared.
As a player, Lynch would drive his wife crazy watching both days of the draft in their entirety. According to Lynch, most players don't watch the draft. Typically, if a veteran player sits down to watch the draft, he is very focused on just the team that he plays for and is checking to see if the organization is bringing in his replacement.
For Lynch, watching the draft as a player was different. He would spend the two days plotting out the draft board. "[Being in a front office] was always of interest to me," Lynch told Mike Florio on Tuesday for a Wednesday edition of PFT Live. "I did think about it while I was playing. Maybe someday that would be something."
A lot of fans do the same for the draft, but perhaps to a lesser extent. The criticism against Lynch has surrounded his lack of front office experience. One thing fans do not get to do is help an NFL team prepare for drafts.
When Lynch signed as a free agent with the Denver Broncos in 2004, John Elway was not playing anymore. The former quarterback still took an interest in Lynch and the two quickly became good friends. When Elway became the general manager in Denver and Lynch was an analyst in the broadcast booth for FOX, he would rely on Lynch as a voice outside of the team to run things by. Sometimes, Lynch would be involved in special projects for Elway, like running reports on safeties one year.
"That evolved to the point where one offseason, he brought me in and had me do the draft meetings -- the meetings, three and a half weeks that preceded the draft," Lynch said. "I went to the Combine with him. That's where I really started to say -- and John even talked then -- if I had the right job. 'I think what you're doing right now is great and it will prepare you if this is something you wish to do,' [Elway would say].
"John used to always give me a hard time. Like, 'What are you really doing as a broadcaster? Are you changing the world?' That kind of thing. There's no scoreboard so that's always kind of been there but I had a blast doing the broadcast. I don't want people to think that I was always looking to do this. I was just enjoying what I was doing and trying to be the best there and then this opportunity presented itself and here we are."
You can listen to the entire interview at Pro Football Talk.
Lynch's experience with Elway certainly explains why the Broncos were willing to part ways with one of their most valued talent evaluators in Adam Peters. The former Broncos director of college scouting brings 13 years of NFL experience as the 49ers' new vice president of player personnel. He will be just one of the individuals who Lynch will rely on as he and new head coach Kyle Shanahan begin work to rebuild the 49ers' talent-depleted roster.