In 2017, the San Francisco 49ers may have experienced the best six-win year in team history.
Although the 49ers didn’t accumulate many victories during the season, the year was full of wins for the team. The 49ers began 2017 by signing the top prospective head coach on the market — Kyle Shanahan — to a six-year contract, thereby officially ending the team’s four-year coaching merry-go-round. The Niners also signed the inexperienced, but respected, former-safety John Lynch to a similar six-year deal as the team’s new general manager. Lynch quickly demonstrated that common sense can trump experience when he signed a bevy of free agents that immediately improved the 49ers’ roster — something his predecessor, Trent Baalke, was unwilling, or unable, to do.
Lynch — with Shanahan by his side — continued to gain respect throughout the league by “brilliantly manipulating his first draft” when he executed two first-round trades(more on that later), before finding three rookie starters in the third day of the 2017 NFL Draft. The duo’s best move of the year was the mid-season trade for quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who was subsequently signed to a long-term contract that established Garoppolo as the face of the 49ers’ franchise for the foreseeable future.
As expected for a head coach and general manager new to the job, 2017 was far from perfect, and the Shanahan-Lynch team took their fair share of lumps throughout the year. The 49ers started the season with nine-straight losses — a franchise record — before righting the ship with Garoppolo under center. Shanahan and Lynch also overpaid for some players in free agency and racked up “dead money” by cutting productive players in order to keep rookies they drafted or signed.
Still, it’s hard to give Shanahan and Lynch anything less than an A grade for their first year in their respective positions. They took a franchise in shambles and turned it into a preferred destination for 2018 free agents. Niner fans have hope again, and hope is the first step in filling what has become an oft-empty Levi’s Stadium.
About the Author: Chris Wilson
