San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch spoke on big trades and draft decisions.
San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch explained the trade for now-Indianapolis Colt DeForest Buckner, the decision to draft WR Brandon Aiyuk and more on Monday.
Lynch talked with Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer to discuss the Niners’ offseason moves, most noticeably the trade that got San Francisco the 13th overall pick as well as what the 49ers did with their draft selections.
Trading DeForest Buckner
After coming within minutes of winning the Super Bowl, the 49ers found themselves in a tough situation. They hadn’t added to their trophy room, but they still had a massive foundation built and wanted to maintain momentum after their best season under head coach Kyle Shanahan.
Lynch said that Buckner and other player contracts made for a tough situation.
“Probably for the first time since our group was assembled, we were facing some salary-cap realities. And players coming due. How do we keep it together? And how do we improve on that? A lot of our conversations were just towards that, how does this whole puzzle work? This wasn’t something that was unexpected. We planned two, three years out.”
Lynch later explained how difficult it was to have to trade an important piece like Buckner, but that being in his position requires him to find the best solution even in tough situations like the one the Niners were in.
“It was agonizing, it really was,” Lynch said. “It was tremendously agonizing and for a lot of reasons. It’s why, as much as anything we’re eager to get back, to talk to our players, to let them know. Kyle and I, it’s been very important, our word means everything. So when you profess to guys, Hey, you do the things we ask, we’re gonna take care of you, and then a guy like DeForest does everything, and you can’t take care of him, that’s difficult.
“But you get paid to make real tough decisions. And leadership, it’s not always the popular decision. It’s what you think is the right decision.”
San Francisco instead locked up DL Arik Armstead to a 5-year, $85 million deal and understandably so, but it doesn’t make the departure of Buckner any easier to swallow for the 49ers front office.
Trading Down, Taking Kinlaw
Lynch also talked about what the Niners wanted to do on Day 1 of the draft, which featured two different trades, as San Francisco traded back from 13th to 14th and traded up from 31st to 25th.
The 49ers were sold on Iowa offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs but also loved eventual pick Javon Kinlaw, so San Francisco trusted their chances when it came to getting Trent Williams later.
“By that point, what I’d tell you is, I wouldn’t say it was a great deal of confidence, but we knew we were in the Trent Williams thing,” Lynch said. “We knew that we’d have a shot. And you start looking, What are some of the reasons we were in the Super Bowl last year? Well, I think when we were right, when we were healthy, we overwhelmed people with our defensive front. And you don’t want to lose that, and we lost a key piece of it.”
In retrospect, it could’ve been a risky move to miss a guy like Wirfs, especially since the Williams trade wasn’t locked down. However, Lynch trusted his gut and was happy to pick up a fourth-round pick from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to potentially use for Williams later.
The decision to replace an outgoing star with a guy that has the potential to replicate his production makes a lot of sense, and it also set up Lynch and the Niners to go get offensive help later in the round.
On top of that, Lynch added a small comment about why Kinlaw was so high on their draft board, saying, “It was a perfect match for what we ask our D-linemen to do, which is tee off and wreck stuff.”
Trading Up, Taking Aiyuk
As the first round pressed on, Aiyuk remained on the board, which enticed San Francisco to look for a spot further up in the round for good value.
The Minnesota Vikings appeared as the best suitor at 25th overall after the Philadelphia Eagles selected TCU WR Jalen Reagor, which saw Lynch reach out to Vikings GM Rick Spielman and hand the 31st overall pick and the fourth-rounder that the Niners got in the round’s earlier trade.
According to the article and Lynch, the 49ers rated Aiyuk as high as Oklahoma WR CeeDee Lamb, and could’ve been the pick at 13 depending on the situation.
“He gives you a little bit of everything,” Lynch said “He’s got strength to deal with the press coverage that everybody’s playing. Some of the holding and grabbing that’s going on, you have to be strong enough. And then forget about his 40 [he ran a 4.50 at the combine], just turn on the film. He never got caught. He plays fast. And then the long arms, he’s got elite competitiveness, there’s just a lot to like about him.”
Aiyuk appears to be a technical star in the making, but Lynch waxes poetic about his physicality and why San Francisco thinks he can thwart press coverage, which is an interesting bit of insight on why the 49ers were so smitten by the Arizona State receiver.
However, giving up the fourth-round pick gained in the trade for 13th meant that the 49ers had fewer resources to get a seven-time Pro Bowler.
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Landing Trent Williams
Lynch faced competition for Williams, including from one of his trade partners: Spielman and the Vikings.
“Also, we knew Minnesota was in on Trent. Did we just arm them with the ammunition they needed to go get him? Like, Oh, gosh,” Lynch said. “That thought went into it as well.”
On top of that, the 49ers were already on the hook. They had been talking with Washington Redskins HC Ron Rivera about sealing the trade before the draft, but the new coach in D.C. wouldn’t budge.
We got there, and Ron just said, ‘There’s too much interest, John, we’re not gonna get it done prior to the draft,’” Lynch said. “So that was tough, we were taking on a lot of risk not knowing if we had Trent Williams, because we liked some of those tackles too.”
With no second-round or third-round picks and no way to maneuver, the 49ers had to just trust their relationship with Rivera and hope their offer of a 2020 fifth-round pick and a 2021 third-round pick was enough.
“It was the best we could do, really,” Lynch said. “I think at that point … that’s what delayed us, the other teams, I can’t speak for them, but some other teams said, ‘Hey, we might get some picks here that would enable us to go do something.’ Washington, probably rightly so, exercised some patience to try to get the best thing they could for their organization, and ultimately our offer was.”
In the end, Lynch and San Francisco walked away with two first-round talents and a Pro Bowl-caliber offensive tackle.