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John Lynch on the 49ers' Puzzling Offseason: "We Have a Plan."

Oh, really?
Grant Cohn|
Feb 27, 2025; Indianapolis, IN, USA; San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch speaks during the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Feb 27, 2025; Indianapolis, IN, USA; San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch speaks during the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

What in the world are the 49ers doing?

That's what people in the Bay Area want to know. No other team in the NFL took as big of a step back during free agency as the 49ers just did. They lost at least nine starters and replaced none of them.

General manager John Lynch was asked about these puzzling moves Wednesday at Stanford's Pro Day.

“We’ve got this thing called the draft, and we’ve got a lot of picks,” Lynch said. “And I think the thing the fans should know is we have a plan. And we’re gonna execute that plan. And we’re excited about the opportunity.”

With all due respect, John, it doesn't seem like you have a plan when you cut Kyle Juszczyk, take on a dead-cap hit of more than $3 million to do so and re-sign him to essentially the same contract four days later.

It doesn't seem like you have a plan when you say you want to get younger and cheaper but you hold onto an expensive fullback who will turn 34 in April.

It doesn't seem like you have a plan when you low ball Dre Greenlaw, then desperately try to match the Broncos' offer to him at the last minute and get rejected.

It doesn't seem like you have a plan when you cut Leonard Floyd so you can make a run at Joey Bosa, but then Bosa signs with the Bills and Floyd signs with the Falcons.

It doesn't seem like you have a plan when you give a three-year, $20.25 million contract to a blocking tight end who has 36 catches and zero touchdowns in his career.

It doesn't seem like you have a plan when you need to draft four or five Day 1 starters just to compete next season.

But I defer to your expertise and eagerly await for this bizarre offseason to start making sense. Surely it will eventually.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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