Open Rants by sh102892

After the news of John Lynch's hiring as the new 49ers GM, I wanted to see what Walt had to say in regards to said hiring. But I wasn't checking out of sheer curiosity, more like the way you check the back of a crossword puzzle book for confirmation on the spelling of a word that you know is the answer to a clue. I knew he would not have many positive things to say, but I was taken aback by the level of animosity Walt felt toward this hiring.

According to Walt, this hire put Jed York over the top as the worst owner in pro sports history. Even if you ignore the hyperbolic nature of that statement, it's still fairly ridiculous considering no on Earth knows how good of a GM Lynch will be. Grades as bad as this one should only be reserved for anyone hiring known failures at their positions, and even then some coaches and executives turn their careers around later in life. They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Well York is taking the opposite approach and trying something different, seeing as the same results from the past two seasons would be an abject failure.

These past few years have proven that first time coaches and GMs can be just as successful as long time veterans. Steve Kerr won a championship in his first year as a coach at any level. Dan Quinn is in the Super Bowl in his second ever season of being a coach. Sam Hinkie was so outside the box as a first time GM of the 76ers that he was forced to resign, but one year later his former team seems to be justifying just about every move he made. 

The 49ers have nowhere to go but up from their current position, and with one of, if not The, best offensive minds in football coming to be their head coach next year, I believe we'll see significant improvement from them. Everywhere he's gone, he's been able to get the incumbent QB to play above their abilty. As Houston's OC, he got Matt Schaub to the Pro Bowl after a 4,700 yard season. Robert Griffin won Rookie of the Year over Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson while playing for Kyle Shanahan, and then Shanahan went and made Brian Hoyer look like an NFL starting QB while he was still in Cleveland. And finally he's shown he can take an above average QB, which there's a chance Colin Kaepernick could find himself playing as next year, and turn him into the MVP of the league.

The Ringer's Kevin Clark, after speaking to Lynch for a recent article, compared him to Tampa Bay Lightning GM Steve Yzerman, who's led his team to three conference finals and one Stanley Cup Finals in his first six seasons as a GM. Clark talked about the competitiveness he felt from Lynch, who would never be satisfied simply standing on the sidelines watching others compete and win. He also mentioned how often in his conversation Lynch independently brought up Shanahan and how impressed he was by him (this conversation took place, mind you, a week before the hiring was announced). At the very least this is a good early indication that Shanahan will be heavily involved in player selection going forward and, if true, goes to show that Lynch will be understanding of his own deficiencies while he's learning his new job and all that in entails.

I'm willing to concede that five years from now I'll look back on that hiring grade and this rant and say, "You know what, I was so very wrong, and Walt hit the nail on the head." That's a very possible outcome from this hiring, but seeing as how neither me nor Walt has any actual concrete knowledge about John Lynch's managerial skills, I'll be withholding my eulogy for the future of the 49ers franchise. At least for the time being.