Former NFL wide receiver and Broncos broadcaster Dave Logan hopped on the Murph and Mac Show Monday morning to give his expertise on John Lynch.
Lynch spent four years in Denver at the end of his career and made the Pro Bowl in all four of the seasons. Logan got to know the strong safety well in their time together.
“I think just in terms of all the things that we do know going in,” Logan said, “in terms of his football acumen, how he works with people, the willingness to devote the next six years of his life to try and get San Francisco turned around, I think all those things are positive with respect to Lynch.
“I think, and I have no way to prove this, but I think John will be successful in that venture. He’s been good at every single that he’s done. And I don’t think this will be any different.”
The comparison that Jed York has made to this hire is when Denver brought in an inexperienced John Elway to run the Broncos in 2011. Elway was more focused on business aspects after he retired from the NFL, but he was the co-owner of the Colorado Crush. Elway also walked into a roster that had Von Miller and some emerging young talent. This is not a cookie-cutter situation.
Logan gave some insight into how Elway operated once he was first hired.
“John, not that he did it by himself, but he didn’t bring in guys like Mark Dominik and you’ve mentioned,” Logan said. “I think John had Matt Russell in place, the director of scouting and he really sort of revamped the entire scouting department. I think Elway has really put his stamp on this since he became GM.
“I think (Lynch) is the kind of guy that will not be afraid to bring veteran guys in and lean on them with respect to being new to the job. I mean, John is smart enough to understand what he doesn’t know. The ego will not be a factor, as far as ‘I don’t want to bring this guy in because he’s going to get all the credit. Or he’s going to be a guy that people think is actually running the organization.’ Lynch to me is not that kind of guy.”
Logan thinks John Lynch the person is going to win over a lot of people in San Francisco before the team even takes the field. Lynch is the kind of guy you want to go have a beer with, an every day guy, according to Logan. And there’s no fear as to whether he’ll pour his heart and soul into being the GM of the 49ers.
“He’s not afraid of hard work. He’s not afraid of rolling up his sleeves. And he loves football,” Logan said. “I don’t think the work ethic is going to be an issue for John. I don’t think the long hours will be an issue. I don’t think talking football 20 hours a day will be an issue.
“I think there will be growing pains. I think he has to revamp the roster. I get all that. This is going to be a process, there’s no question. But he is competitive and he’s knowledgable and honestly, I will be really surprised if John Lynch does not do a really good job.
“The issue will be basically how quickly he can acclimate to running the football side of an organization. That’s really going to be the test that we’ll all sit back and watch.”
