John Lynch is supposed to be long gone. He should be on the “Thursday Night Football” crew, preparing for Titans–Steelers, his simple white pocket square classing up the joint. But Lynch didn’t take that Jeff Bezos money. The job wasn’t finished. That’s what the 49ers general manager told the heartbroken 49ers in the visiting locker room of SoFi Stadium following the loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship Game at the end of the 2021 season when coach Kyle Shanahan asked him to address the team. That’s what he’s been committed to since.
That’s why, on the eve of the NFL trade deadline this week, he was tossing and turning. The 49ers had some irons in the fire. They’d been working their way towards some deals. But something was gnawing at Lynch.
“I had this feeling going to bed,” he said on a conference call Wednesday morning, “… and waking up that nothing was going to come to fruition. Just because, I don’t know, the more people do these it seems like the comp is getting higher and higher. We probably got spoiled a little bit last year in getting Christian (McCaffrey) — not only such a great player but getting a player who you’ll have for years to come.”
The lost sleep was in vain. Lynch — of course, with Shanahan and a staff of grinders — did it again with the acquisition of Chase Young, the Washington Commanders’ defensive end prodigy who on paper feels like the perfect salve for their wounded pass rush. Once again, they walk away from the trade deadline as the big winner — less than a month after getting Randy Gregory from Denver.
Perhaps it was the 49ers’ embarrassment of riches causing some of the anxiousness that robbed him of sleep. A team as loaded as the 49ers couldn’t land another stud, right? Lynch’s gut was telling him it doesn’t normally work out this way. But no doubt the gnawing feeling was also the consuming thirst for finishing that job.
The 49ers’ second consecutive trade-deadline splash, landing massive talents at bargain prices, is the latest sign of the front office’s desperation to end the 49ers’ decades-long Super Bowl drought. And if the job doesn’t get completed, it will be tough to lay any blame at Lynch’s feet.
They’ve swung for the fences. They keep making the big moves. They’ve managed to be both aggressive and prudent. Some of their moves have failed. A few of their calculated risks are still hanging in the balance (see: Jake Moody). But the 49ers can’t be accused of conservatism. Even in a season that once felt like it was their destiny to win the Super Bowl, they still walk away with the most jaw-dropping of the trade-deadline transactions.
They’ve done this so regularly that many are wondering why they didn’t also get a cornerback, too.
“If you can add a player who can help you, I think it’s boosted our team before,” Lynch said. “Emmanuel Sanders (acquired at the 2019 deadline) did it. I think Charles Omenihu (2021) made a lot of contributions. Christian, obviously. We’ve had a nice track record. But it’s tough because it’s become an expectation that we’re going to do something. Everyone’s kind of looking at you close to the trade deadline when you haven’t done something yet. And you’re saying, ‘Hold on. Randy Gregory. We did that.'”
49ers’ trade for Young is a triple-down on what they are
This is a pressure they’ve earned, a reputation that’s been built over the last six years.
Beginning with the trade for Jimmy Garoppolo in 2017 — young fans, it may not look like it now, but that was a huge deal six years ago — Lynch & Co. have built a roster worthy of a championship. It got real in 2019 when they got Nick Bosa with the No. 2 pick, a selection so impactful they made the Super Bowl in his rookie season. But a gutwrenching fourth-quarter collapse against Patrick Mahomes only made the end game more tangible. The 49ers were one pass, potentially one non-holding call on Bosa from the franchise’s first Super Bowl title since the 1994 season. Two years later, they let victory slip through their hands in the NFC title game.
Lynch walked away from Amazon’s (reported) $15 million offer because a sixth ring is a mission. And Lynch doesn’t abandon the job. That’s why he’s in the Hall of Fame.
Since then, the hunger has been evident in the moves. Even with a team good enough to make consecutive NFC Championship Games, the 49ers’ front office didn’t fall into conservatism. Even after starting 5-0 and repeating to anyone who would listen that the “answers are in the building,” they were still out there shopping. They were just on top of the NFL and, per Lynch’s timeline, he was still stalking Young for pass rush help.
It’s a mindset at play, a hunger to finish the job. Also, looking around the landscape of the NFL, it’s not common.
Think about the moves they’ve made since Lynch made that speech to the team.
Months later, they made Trent Williams the highest-paid offensive lineman in NFL history.
Then in the 2021 draft, they traded multiple first-round picks to move up to No. 3 and select Trey Lance. This was after trying to get Aaron Rodgers.
In 2022, they signed Charvarius Ward away from Kansas City.
At last year’s trade deadline, they acquired McCaffrey from Carolina.
In April, they signed Javon Hargrave from the Eagles, guaranteeing him $40 million.
Now they’ve added Young basically for free. Lynch — working with his mentor and former teammate Martin Mayhew, the Commanders’ GM — said he checked in on Young weeks ago. His relationship with Mayhew came in handy as Lynch remained in the loop about Young’s status. It even got the 49ers a shot at fellow Commanders defensive end Montez Sweat, who came at a higher price.
“We’ve been tracking Chase for some time. We really liked Chase’s film. We like where he was seemingly from a health standpoint,” Lynch said, later adding, “We think Chase is a complete player.”
In the end, Young was the combination of the right player at the right price for this circumstance. He’s a free agent at season’s end, but he hasn’t quite lived up to his hype as a former No. 2 pick. So these last nine games with the 49ers, and then likely on the postseason platform, Young will have a chance to redeem his name and land a big payday. Maybe with the 49ers.
That’s what makes this such a shrewd move. Lynch is banking on Young having the same mindset the 49ers are being governed by until they get the Super Bowl. The job isn’t finished.
In Chase Young, 49ers find a Nick Bosa bookend that’s been missing since 2019
Wait, this is a new article? I’m pretty sure I read an article about exactly that before the season
Because his contract was extended. lol