Niners Nation
Walking through all of the moves the 49ers have made during John Lynch’s tenure to decide how he’s doing at his job
Looking back at a roster bereft of talent in March 2017, general manager John Lynch has transformed the San Francisco 49ers into perennial playoff contenders.
Like most teams, some of those decisions have been doubles off the wall, and the others were swings and misses. An aggressive annual approach to reshaping the roster has allowed the team to remain competitive despite stepping to the plate with no outs and the bases loaded.
The dark cloud known as the 2017 NFL Draft will forever follow Lynch. To his credit, Lynch’s philosophy has been consistent. They were going to win defensively with athleticism and aggression, while the hotshot offensive guru Kyle Shanahan manufactured offense. Build the defense up first, and the offense will slowly follow.
That led the 49ers to use the No. 3 overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft on an uber athlete who split time at defensive tackle and on the edge in college. The 49ers took the same approach heading into the 2025 NFL Draft.
Solomon Thomas was a third-team All-American, but I’d argue that his box scores and collegiate stats were full of fluff, whereas how Mykel Williams wins is more transferrable. Oh, and in 2025, the 49ers know who their quarterback is because they just built a roster with one good enough to make multiple Super Bowl appearances while he was on a rookie contract.
That was not the case when Lynch and Shanahan were handed the reins back in 2017. Hindsight doesn’t help the Niners, as teams are over-drafting quarterbacks in today’s game and have been for a few years; knowing a QB on a rookie contract is the quickest way to rebuild because you have financial flexibility.
In a final ESPN mock draft, Nick Wagoner said, “The bet here is they will wait on finding their quarterback,” and “Thomas doesn’t fill the Niners’ biggest need as an edge rusher, but he’s a safe pick who can bolster the league’s worst run defense.”
Throughout the draft process, neither Patrick Mahomes nor Deshaun Watson were considered “top” prospects. DeShone Kizer was the only quarterback to go in the second round. The Niners didn’t pull the trigger on a quarterback until their second pick in the third round, Iowa’s C.J. Beathard.
The 49ers get a golf clap for picking up an extra third-round pick (Ahkello Witherspoon), a fourth (Joe Williams), and a 2018 third-rounder (Fred Warner). Despite ending up with the best off-ball linebacker of the previous decade, you have to come away with more from a draft when you have two first-round picks than what the Niners did. And that’s someone who, to this day, would have co-signed any team willing to take a swing on Reuben Foster.
Instead of being wrong about a quarterback, the 49ers were wrong about a defensive lineman. That’s why the dark cloud of the ‘17 draft will forever...
