49ers’ John Lynch calls report on dispute with Kyle Shanahan ‘nonsense’

San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch joined San Francisco’s 95.7 The Game on Friday and called a reported dispute with head coach Kyle Shanahan “nonsense.”

Earlier this week, Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller released a report suggesting some friction within the San Francisco 49ers‘ front office, namely between head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch.

Miller wrote:

"According to sources in the team’s scouting and coaching staff, the two aren’t in lock step as far as the vision of the offseason and the future of the franchise. The coach, Shanahan, wants to scheme and develop players while not being bothered with the player evaluation process, but more and more he finds himself involved while not trusting the decision-making of Lynch—a former media analyst after his Hall of Fame playing days but not someone with a scouting background."

Shortly afterwards, Shanahan disputed the report, calling it “complete bull—-,” according to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco.

On Friday, Lynch joined Joe, Lo & Dibs on San Francisco’s 95.7 The Game to discuss Miller’s report, among other Niners-related things following the 2019 NFL Draft.

“Well, it’s nonsense,” Lynch said. “Look, I’m a big boy. Kyle’s a big boy. People can talk about a lot of things — whether they like our pick. People can say, ‘Hey, you’re dumb for taking a punter in the fourth round.”

Lynch was referring to the selection of Utah punter Mitch Wishnowsky in Round 4, which did draw some modest criticism, as Wishnowsky was the first specialist taken during the draft.

That said, the 49ers’ first three picks made a lot of sense, at least as far as team needs go. At No. 2 overall, San Francisco grabbed Ohio State edge rusher Nick Bosa, who was widely seen as the top prospect in this year’s class. Wide receivers Deebo Samuel and Jalen Hurd in Rounds 2 and 3, respectively, had Shanahan’s fingerprints all over the selections.

Additionally, Lynch has a top personnel evaluator at his disposal, Vice President of Player Personnel Adam Peters, at his disposal. So, if there are questions about talent evaluation, Peters has to be involved in the discussion.

“We have a tremendous working relationship,” Lynch continued. “We’re great friends off the field. There’s a lot of trust. We came in this together and we came in knowing that there’d be some tough times and that it wasn’t going to be easy. But it was going to be worth it.

“So, I can tell Niner fans that we’re strong as ever. And there’s a lot of trust and faith. I feel so great for this organization that they’ve got Kyle Shanahan — tremendous leader, tremendous mind.”

Other reports, including ones from 49ers insiders, point to a clear lack of friction between the two. The Athletic’s Matt Barrows reported both Shanahan and Lynch’s families travel together, while Maiocco told KNBR 680 the two were “pretty much inseparable” at the NFL meetings last March.

One might guess both Barrows and Maiocco have a better pulse on the inner workings of the 49ers front office than Miller, despite the latter’s track record on NFL Draft analysis.

There could be some lingering concerns over the initial report, however. Miller isn’t exactly the kind of reporter to proverbially “throw something against the wall to see if it sticks.” So that could mean there’s some source within the organization either disgruntled with a situation, in one way or another. It’s anyone’s guess.

Either way, one can hope this is little more than a slight bump in what has seemed to be a mutually beneficial relationship the past two-plus years.