John Lynch: ‘You’ve got to have a franchise quarterback and we know that’

On Monday, San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch was on NFL Network following the news that the Oakland Raiders will be relocating to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2020. While he empathized with Raiders fans in the Bay Area, he certainly sees the benefit of being the only NFL team in the market.

In addition to discussing the Raiders, Lynch also discussed the 49ers' search for a franchise quarterback. Right now, Brian Hoyer, who the team signed on the first day of free agency, looks to be the leading candidate to start at quarterback in head coach Kyle Shanahan's offense.

"Brian's a guy who's very familiar with Kyle's system," Lynch said. "We think he has a lot of good football in front of us. And a lot of people saying he's a stop-gap. We don't know what he is. He's our quarterback right now – as is Matt Barkley. We're
going to expect the best out of them."

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Lynch also discussed the NFL Draft and the possibility of one of the top quarterback candidates landing on the 49ers' roster.

"We were at North Carolina's pro day (to see Mitch Trubisky)," Lynch said. "We had a private workout with Deshaun Watson and we saw DeShone Kizer at his pro day. Back to back to back days. I think it was a really efficient and effective way to do it because we got to really compare them against each other while it was fresh in our minds. And I think as much as you study film and the film speaks in this league, there is some value to seeing it in person. We got time with each of them.

"And I said it when I was hired and really had started to study these guys. I thought they were each getting a bad rap. They each have maybe reasons why people think they shouldn't go two. In Trubisky's case, he's only started 13 games. But they also – you turn on the tape for each of them and they have redeeming qualities that make you say, 'Wow, this guy would be a part of it.'

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"So we're evaluating them. We'll continue to do so. And Kyle and I, yes, one of the first things that we talked about (is) you've got to have a franchise quarterback and we know that. We're in search of it and we're looking at every avenue to try to get that and we'll see where we go."

The 49ers currently own the second overall selection in the 2017 NFL Draft, which kicks off on April 27. Their next pick is the 34th overall, which is the second selection of day two of the NFL Draft. The 49ers have 10 total picks in this year's draft.