The 49ers brazenly hired John Lynch as their new general manager Sunday night.
The move was met with a lot of skepticism, but I penned a column on why I’m willing to give this swing-for-the-fences approach a shot.
But on Day 1 of the new regime, Lynch’s first order of business is already prompting some bewilderment.
I'm hearing #49ers GM John Lynch will give assistant GM Tom Gamble chance through the draft to prove he should remain with the organization.
— Matt Maiocco (@MaioccoNBCS) January 30, 2017
Instead of completely starting over after the poisonous Trent Baalke era, Lynch is set to keep some shrapnel from a dreadful time period of 49ers football. How many poor decisions over the past few seasons was Gamble involved in? Ignoring the quarterback and wide receiver positions directly led to San Francisco’s 2-14 record in 2016. Even if he wasn’t pulling the trigger, Gamble is guilty by association.
There’s no doubting Gamble is a longtime professional in the scouting industry, and he did spend some time away from Santa Clara, turning in two seasons in Philadelphia. He’s respected and liked. Many of us thought Jed York was going to replace Baalke with Gamble and keep Chip Kelly for 2017.
Which begs the question: How much is York pulling the strings on this decision-making? I wrote one of the negatives about hiring Lynch is that he has such little experience, he almost has no choice but to listen to York, who has now been involved in an NFL front office for 15 seasons.
Here’s what York said about Gamble during his Jan. 2 news conference.
“Tom is a very loyal employee,” York said. “I think he’s one of the unsung heroes in sort of the scouting world and the professional world in the NFL. I have a ton of respect for Tom Gamble. But again, I think it’s time that we have two new people at the helm from the general manager and the head coach perspective.”
In reality, the 49ers need to uproot their current scouting department. Obviously, the team has already been putting together a draft board. And most of the scouts are still in tact, still filing reports on all of the prospects. Lynch needs his hands on the information. He also wants someone around who knows these scouts. The rationale to keep Gamble is understood.
But the way San Francisco has been picking players the last four seasons has not panned out. At all. Whether Gamble is completely different than Baalke doesn’t matter. If the 49ers are truly committed to rebuilding the entire franchise, the person who is leading the scouting department needs to set an entirely different tone upstairs in the building. Will that be possible hanging onto Gamble? It’ll be much harder, that’s for sure.
Is Mark Dominik too far removed to walk-in and run a scouting department? The former Buccaneers GM has widely been linked to San Francisco since early last week but he’s been with ESPN the last few years. Stepping into a No. 2 role under Lynch and with Kyle Shanahan is an incredible opportunity that he’d probably accept. In his time running the controls down in Tampa Bay, Dominik drafted pillars in Gerald McCoy, Doug Martin and LaVonte David but he did whiff on quarterback Josh Freeman.
There’s no doubting Lynch is going to need more right-hand men then most GMs. In an MMQB article, York likened the hiring to the Broncos plucking John Elway from thin air. Elway brought Tom Heckert with him from outside of the building, though. It was a necessary move to bring in another heavy hitter to the decision making table.
Lynch is a bright leader, with many football connections. He should essentially get to handpick who his assistant general manager is. York has already proved he’ll open his checkbook for a six-year contract. There have to be other names who want to attach their names to Lynch and Kyle Shanahan.
But if Lynch handcuffs himself to Tom Gamble in year one, it doesn’t appear as if his thought process is entirely in order. This is less about Gamble and more about that the 49ers needing change at every single leadership position.
