San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch joined KNBR on Friday morning and gave his thoughts on the Week 1 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
"The nice thing about the NFL is you have an opportunity — you have to wait a week — but you have an opportunity to look forward right away," Lynch said on the "Murph & Mac" show. "The loss didn't sit well with me, it didn't sit well with our team, because I think we saw that we left a lot out there. And that's not to say the Vikings didn't earn it.
"To me, we knew it was going to be a tough one. They were a 13-win team last year who improved themselves, in my mind, with their quarterback, with some things they did on defense. Sheldon Richardson came in.
"So that was a very good team, and as I said going in, to beat a good team on the road, you've got to do all the little things that make really good teams, and that's execute and finish things, and, you know, tackle. Things that are very simple, fundamental deals. You've got to tackle, you've got to catch the ball, and we left a lot of those out there."
Despite the sloppy play, the 49ers were in the game until the end before losing 24-16.
"I don't like it when people say, 'They should have won,'" Lynch continued. "No, we shouldn't have because we are not winning. The one thing I did like, I like the resolve of our team. We've got a team that will fight and fight to the end, and I think they showed that. Now we just have to clean some things up."
Fred Warner impressed during his first NFL outing. The rookie linebacker started every defensive snap at the MIKE linebacker spot and was credited with 12 combined tackles, a pass defensed, and a forced fumble.
"Fred had a really good debut," Lynch said. "It really didn't surprise a lot of us because he's kind of been a guy who's passed every test since he's been here. He's a really good player, and I think he showed he can do it on a big stage. Now you just improve upon that.
"I think there's little subtleties, but one thing we know about Fred, he's talented, and then he sees the game incredibly well. People call it instincts, knowing your assignment. But I think it's a little bit beyond knowing your assignment. He just sees things."
Lynch believes the 49ers found a great football player in Warner, who was one of the team's two third-round draft picks this year. Warner started because linebacker Reuben Foster is suspended and veteran Malcolm Smith is injured.
"Fred's going to be tough to take off the field," Lynch added. "I think [head coach Kyle Shanahan] said that. I think, provided he goes and plays like he has, it would be hard to take the young man off the field."
Malcolm's Smith only outing in a 49ers uniform was a blink-and-you-missed-it performance during the exhibition opener on August 9. He has been dealing with a hamstring injury since that game. Smith spent last season on injured reserve after suffering a torn pectoral muscle during training camp.
"That is tough when you invest heavily in a player and have high hopes," Lynch said. "He was a guy that had played in this system. Robert Saleh was familiar with him from Seattle, and you have great expectations for players. The one thing I will tell you, we really pride ourselves on bringing the right type of guys in and that is Malcolm.
"This isn't something consistent with his history, and he's had a rough go here the last couple of years. He wants to be out here as bad as anyone. We could surely use him.
"We had to go make a move this week to bring in Terence Garvin because we're just getting really light at the linebacker spot. But that's the way this league is. I can tell you Malcolm is working really hard, but it is going to be nice to finally see him back on the field."
Lynch was watching film at his desk on Thursday morning when he started receiving congratulatory text messages on his phone. He had no idea why he was receiving them.
"I found out it was actually some decent news," Lynch said.
Lynch, who was a nine-time Pro Bowl player with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Denver Broncos, was once again among the 102 modern-era nominees for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He has advanced to the top-15 finalists in each of the past five years.
Lynch said: "People ask, 'Does it get old?' Well, it's better than the alternative of not being on the list, and there's not a dang thing I can do. So you sit back, and that's the first of many steps."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Lynch below.
