San Francisco 49ers: Lynch, Shanahan Charting Bold, Aggressive New Direction

The San Francisco 49ers, quite obviously under new management, have taken some bold, aggressive steps through free agency and the now-completed NFL Draft.

You can say one thing for the San Francisco 49ers in 2017, they’ve been far more intriguing and fun to watch than at any point over the last couple of seasons – and this is just the offseason.

GM John Lynch and HC Kyle Shanahan have embarked on a bold, aggressive new era in San Francisco – or Santa Clara, if you prefer. Things are being shaken up and turned over in a way unseen in San Francisco since 1906.

Now, this is not to say that this squad is going to win a lot of games or make a run to the playoffs – though, we’ve seen stranger things happen. But, this is to say that under the leadership and guidance of Lynch and Shanahan, the 49ers are turning the ship around and steering away from the rocks they’ve been foundering upon the last couple of years.

The organization was aggressive in free agency, signing more than 20 players to deals. They upgraded in a lot of places, and found solid role players for others. The roster still needs more talent – and a lot of it – but on paper, this team should win more games than they did last season (2). And it might not be outside the realm of possibility for this team to at least equal the win total of the last two seasons combined (7).

Given the circumstances (and roster) that Lynch and Shanahan inherited – and considering the fact that they’re still rebuilding on the fly – guiding this team to a 6-10 or 7-9 record could be considered a win. If nothing else, this team should be far more competitive come Sundays this season.

That is thanks, in large part, to the bold, aggressive tone set by Lynch and Shanahan.

And if nothing else they’ve done this offseason illustrates that point, just look to the now-completed NFL Draft as proof.

Sitting with the second overall pick, the 49ers couldn’t have been blamed too much if they’d stood pat and took a quarterback or filled another need on a roster with plenty of them. But Lynch, apparently as aggressive as a GM as he was as a player, locked on to Bears GM Ryan Pace and delivered the sort of bruising hit he was known for.

The Bears, having just signed Mike Glennon to a $15 million dollar a year deal, inexplicably had their heart set on quarterback Mitch Trubisky and were willing to give up the farm for him. Lynch fleeced Pace and the Bears to the tune of third and fourth round picks, and a third round pick in 2018.

And all they had to do was wait an extra fifteen or twenty minutes as the Bears moved from the third overall pick to the second – and paid a hefty price to do so.

When the dust from that deal settled, the 49ers, picking at number three, took Stanford’s Solomon Thomas – whom they’d been rumored to be targeting for a while. But Lynch and the 49ers weren’t done. Not even close.

With the first round coming to a close, Lynch made yet another aggressive move to jump back into the first round. Giving up their second round pick – and the fourth round pick they’d just netted from the Bears – Lynch was able to move back into the first round (thirty-first overall) to grab Alabama linebacker Reuben Foster.

Next: Giants Take Cal QB Davis Webb In Third Round

It was a savvy, aggressive move to snatch the consensus top linebacker in this year’s draft class, and perfectly illustrates the new direction Lynch and Shanahan are steering the 49ers’ ship.

San Francisco had arguably, the best first round in this year’s Draft. They netted two of the top players at their positions and upgraded a defense that sorely needed it. And they did it because they were bold and aggressive.

They added another eight players after that first round. There are a couple of nice prospects, some obvious projects, and some solid candidates for the practice squad, but after a stunningly terrific first round, everything else was pretty much just gravy.

It was a pretty impressive debut showing from a rookie GM. And it makes one think that with such savvy, aggressive, and intelligent maneuvering, the 49ers rebuild may not take nearly as long as some might think.

They have a ways to go yet, and plenty of talent still to accrue, but they’re already heading in the right direction. And it may not net a ton of wins yet, but if nothing else, at least they’ve been more fun and intriguing to watch this offseason than they have on the field the last couple of years.