John Lynch may not be to Blame for Drafting Solomon Thomas
San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch has received tons of criticism for drafting Solomon Thomas with the third pick. When talking about Lynch’s success, the conversation always teeters back to, well, he drafted Thomas instead of guys like Jamal Adams, Deshaun Watson, or Patrick Mahomes.
That may not have been Lynch's fault, to begin with, and here’s why.
Lynch is the general manager because of Kyle Shanahan.
Despite the Hall of Fame resume that Lynch owns, Lynch reached out to Shanahan and volunteered for the job. What if Shanahan didn’t co-sign for Lynch? Would Lynch have been hired? Lynch wasn’t a candidate for GM until that call to Shanahan, so it’s safe to assume no.
How does that tie into drafting Thomas? Well, that was their first draft together. Considering Shanahan basically hired Lynch, it would be safe to assume Shanahan had at least 51 percent of the say on what the 49ers should do with their first draft pick under the new regime.
Even though there were quarterbacks like Watson and Mahomes available, Shanahan was obsessed with the idea of reuniting with Kirk Cousins. That was Kyle’s plan.
Shanahan has been on record that he fully believes in building a team from the offensive and defensive line. It’s not a bad strategy by any means, but while that’s Shanahan’s thought process, that may not be Lynch’s.
49ers four first-round drafts under Shanahan.
(Only included the first players selected in the first round by the 49ers)
2017 Thomas
2018 Mike McGlinchey
2019 Nick Bosa
2020 Javon Kinlaw
In that 2017 pre-draft process, the 49ers were getting linked to Jonathan Allen and Adams relatively often. But, with all the talent that would be available, Shanahan only visited with one player.
Rich Eisen did a great job in a phone interview with Lynch. He was able to discover who was Lynch’s draft crush. Lynch showed zero remorse when asked “if the Bears had taken Solomon Thomas, would you have taken Mitch Trubisky?” Lynch actually laughed.
Then Lynch said he would’ve taken Reuben Foster with the third pick. It seems clear that was his guy.
Foster didn’t work out in San Francisco, either. But based on the evidence above, it isn’t fair to blame Lynch for drafting both Thomas and Foster.
It’s extremely possible Thomas was Shanahan’s guy and not Lynch’s.
