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John Lynch, 49ers? Really?

John Lynch was an outstanding player. Can he be a GM?

When news first broke that the San Francisco 49ers had tabbed John Lynch as their new general manager, you and I probably had the same thought; “There’s another John Lynch?”

It’s possible. Crazy guys out there share the same name, for good or ill. The NFL network has an analyst named Randy Moss that’s not the former wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings and New England Patriots. There’s poor Gerry Sandusky, the Baltimore Ravens play-by-play guy, that shares a name with infamous convicted child molester and reason former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno is roasting in Hell right now, Jerry Sandusky. It’s a tough break.

But, no. It wasn’t a different John Lynch. It was former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Denver Broncos safety John Lynch, who, until a few days ago, was an analyst for Fox. Now he’s the GM of the San Francisco 49ers. Why?

First off, we’ve been through this dance before. The Detroit Lions hired Matt Millen out of the broadcast booth to run their team in 2001. He spent the next eight seasons running that team into the ground, culminating in an 0-16 2008, the greatest achievement in futility and losing in NFL history.

Will Lynch do the same? Frankly, the recipe for that kind of disaster is already in place.

First off, the 49ers don’t have a head coach. There’s every indication that Kyle Shanahan will take the job after the Super Bowl, but with the 49ers’ ability to screw things up in play, that’s no guarantee. Not until Shanahan is officially signed and on staff.

Second, the team’s roster is in complete disarray. There isn’t a legitimate NFL quarterback on the depth chart. Colin Kaepernick will likely get cut this offseason and Blaine Gabbert will b a free agent. Christian Ponder will also be a free agent as of March 1 and if you forgot that he was even on the 49ers roster, you can be forgiven for that. He probably did too.

San Francisco is working with an OK offensive line and that’s something. In the backfield, Carlos Hyde is a legitmate NFL starter and slot receiver Jeremy Kerley is an underrated NFL talent. On defense, the 49ers have just two NFL-level starters, outside linebacker Ahmad Brooks and safety Antoine Bethea. Brooks has already stated he doesn’t want to be on a rebuilding team so he might try to force a trade. Even if he doesn’t, both he and Bethea have just one more year left on their current contracts.

Shanahan, or whoever the coach turns out to be, will basically be taking over a roster that looks like an expansion team. The draft and front office will be run by a man with no NFL executive experience and only draft experience is watching it on television like the rest of us and that one time he was actually selected in that draft as a third-rounder in 1993.

Lynch is a smart guy. He always was. I can understand the desire to leave the broadcast booth and get involved in management. Certainly former players like John Elway and Ozzie Newsome have found success as general managers, but neither just jumped right into the job. Elway ran an Arena League team, the Colorado Crush, from 2003 to 2009 with the AFL folded for a year.

Newsome entered the then Cleveland Browns front office after he retired in 1995 and worked his way up the organization the hard way. He didn’t become general manager until 2002, six years later.

Lynch has a six-year deal with the Niners and is a Hall of Fame finalist this year as a player.

“Having already helped lead a team to a Super Bowl title as a player, John is equipped with tremendous insight into what it takes to create a culture that breeds sustained success,” 49ers CEO Jed York said in a statement. “Having spent the last eight seasons as an analyst with FOX, he has honed his skills as a talented communicator while also developing valuable relationships around the league and a vast knowledge of the NFL that will be beneficial to our team. As we learned more and more about John, it became apparent that he was not only one of the best to ever play this game but also a Hall of Fame caliber man, one who people are compelled to follow.”

And all that may well be true, but the same could have been said about Millen, with one exception. Millen won four Super Bowl titles. Titles that meant absolutely nothing for  the Detroit Lions.

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Written by Adam Greene

Adam Greene is a writer and photographer based out of East Tennessee. His work has appeared on Cracked.com, in USA Today, the Associated Press, the Chicago Cubs Vineline Magazine, AskMen.com and many other publications.

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