When the 49ers announced they’d hired rookie front-office guy John Lynch as their new general manager recently, I took a jaundiced view. The team, I said, is about to enter a rebuilding period that will likely last 3-5 seasons. What they needed in the front office was a guy with some real football savvy, particularly when it comes to evaluating talent. Lynch has no track record in that department at all, so I said I didn’t believe his hiring was a good move, particularly since Jed York, the Niners’ owner, gave the guy a six-year deal.
Now Lynch may have begun proving me — and many other equally skeptical fans and observers — wrong. In his first hire, he recruited Denver Bronco director of college scouting Adam Peters to be the team’s new VP of Player Personnel. In that role, presumably, Peters will have significant input into draft, trade, recruiting and roster decisions. If so, this guy’s credentials and track record suggest he might be just what Lynch needs to shore up one of the new GM’s most glaring weaknesses: an unfamiliarity with NFL rosters and upcoming collegiate players.
I don’t think Peters’ hiring accelerates the Niners’ rebuilding schedule, but it might bring a new degree of sanity and logic to the table, which can only be a good thing when you have a numbskull like York at the top of the pyramid.