The 49ers have had some legendary head coaches, but plenty of the franchise’s success has stemmed from some notable general managers, too.
It’s not too hard to find the great eras in San Francisco 49ers lore.
And when fans look back at the success the five-time Super Bowl champions have had dating back to the team’s inception in 1946, it’s often the players and head coaches who receive the bulk of the credit.
Often lost in the mix is the job the Niners’ general managers have done to help create rosters that are capable of achieving that success.
Sure, San Francisco has gone through plenty of hard times, too, and calling out general managers for shoddy work during these stretches is easier than giving credit when it’s due (see former 49ers GM Trent Baalke as a prime example), but it’s certainly worth looking at each one of the Niners’ executives over the years and breaking down the five best out of the 11 who have held the position over the team’s history.
And, no, Baalke won’t make his way onto this list.
49ers top general manager No. 5: John Lynch (2017-current)
San Francisco went with something of a surprise pick amid the post-Baalke era early in 2017, grabbing former NFL safety turned Fox television analyst John Lynch to pair with then first-year head coach Kyle Shanahan.
Sure, Lynch might be more of a media personality, and there are thoughts he defers the actual scouting and negotiations with players to other assistants.
And while Lynch’s first NFL Draft that year didn’t quite net the most desirable first-round results (see defensive end Solomon Thomas and linebacker Reuben Foster), it’s nevertheless important to recognize the success Lynch has had in turning what was previously a two-win team into a championship contender two full years later.
From 2017 through 2021, the 49ers still have a regular-season losing record of 39-42. Yet it’s fair to admit the first two years were part of a total rebuild, and boasting one trip to the Super Bowl and another trip to the NFC Championship game as highly successful.
Expect Lynch to climb the rankings of this list if that kind of success continues to pour in.
49ers top general manager No. 4: Scot McCloughan (2005-2009)
On the surface, former general manager Scot McCloughan doesn’t appear to be one of those who should qualify for a top spot among the Niners’ best executives over the years.
And most fans would recall the dark years the team experienced between 2004 and 2010 anyway.
Yes, McCloughan’s 31-49 record with San Francisco doesn’t look good. But his team-building efforts amid still-worse years of 2003 and 2004 helped build up the squad Trent Baalke inherited in 2010, and a massive chunk of that talent helped turn the 49ers into the powerhouse squad of the former head coach Jim Harbaugh years between 2011 and 2014.
Sure, there were some bad NFL Draft selections, and we probably won’t want to look at the 2008 class. However, going back to many of McCloughan’s hits, it’s not hard to see how that success for the following decade was set up.
Running back Frank Gore in Round 3 of the 2005 draft was a gamble that paid off in a franchise-changing way, while quarterback Alex Smith finally turned things around when Harbaugh arrived. 2006 was good with tight end Vernon Davis and Delanie Walker, too.
McCloughan’s 2007 draft, consisting of first-rounders like linebacker Patrick Willis and tackle Joe Staley, was maximized even further by the additions of defensive end Ray McDonald and then defensive backs like Dashon Goldson and Tarell Brown, and that class might be considered among the greatest drafts in the organization’s history.
Every one of those players was vital in the Niners’ subsequent success. Too bad McCloughan’s departure from the franchise happened before his efforts were realized.
49ers top general manager No. 3: Louis Spadia (1952-1976)
Imagine being a team executive for a 25-year period. In today’s ever-changing NFL, the names who stay with their respective teams for more than five years appear rare enough.
San Francisco’s longest-tenured general manager, Louis Spadia, has to be included on this list if for no other reason than holding that claim for such a lengthy period of time, helping transition the 49ers towards the modern-football era.
Granted, Spadia’s teams finished with a cumulative record of 161-160 with only four playoff appearances during that sizable span. And one might figure his tenure should have resulted in more postseason success, both before the Super Bowl era and after it began.
However, let’s give Spadia some credit for some of those good 49ers teams from the early 1970s, which saw three consecutive postseason appearances from 1970 through 1972, only for those to come crashing down at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys.
And Spadia also ended up drafting some of the most legendary players in the franchise’s pre-dynasty years of the 1980s, too, such as cornerback Jimmy Johnson, offensive tackle Bob St. Clair and linebacker Dave Wilcox, all Pro Football Hall of Famers.
Spadia earned his retirement after 1976, yet that unfortunately ushered in one of the darkest eras in Niners history under general manager Joe Thomas that would last until another notable name in San Francisco history, one Bill Walsh.
49ers top general manager No. 2: Carmen Policy (1991-1997)
You thought we were going to segway right from Louis Spadia to Bill Walsh here, didn’t you?
Spoiler: Walsh doesn’t make this list, and we have a brief reason for that.
Despite Walsh turning the franchise around, albeit taking some time in the wake of Joe Thomas in the late 1970s (finding quarterback Joe Montana and wide receiver Dwight Clark sure helped), the greatest head coach in 49ers history smartly gave up general manager duties after 1982.
And his GM efforts for two years in 1999 and 2000 were shadows of what he did to resurrect the franchise two decades earlier.
At any rate, Walsh has his rightful top place among Niners head coaches.
It’s Carmen Policy who deserves his spot as the second-best general manager in franchise history.
True, Policy inherited a stacked roster when he took over duties in 1991, and some may argue he didn’t come close to replicating the glory years of the previous decade. That said, those San Francisco teams of the 1990s remained a powerhouse group, and arguably only the Cowboys and eventually the Green Bay Packers were responsible for preventing the 49ers from repeating the kind of multi-Super Bowl success enjoyed during the 1980s.
All told, though, Policy’s Niners helped pick up where Walsh and another last GM on this list left off in 1990, and San Francisco’s record under Policy would be a whopping 83-29 during the regular season with six playoff appearances and a Super Bowl championship during his seven-year career.
Only one general manager is better, though.
49ers top general manager No. 1: John McVay (1983-1990)
Remember the part about Bill Walsh handing over the general manager keys in 1983?
The choice? The best general manager in 49ers history, John McVay.
It was one thing for Walsh to rebuild a downtrodden franchise in the late 1970s and then claim the organization’s first-ever Super Bowl after the 1981 season. It’s another to then take that squad and build it into arguably the best dynasty in football history before the New England Patriots’ own 20-year run two decades later.
If the 1980s mark the Niners’ most dominant decade, then McVay has to be viewed as the franchise’s most dominant GM, right?
Grabbing the greatest wide receiver player in NFL history in the 1985 draft, Jerry Rice, is only a small component of McVay’s success. What stands out as even more impressive is the fact McVay’s teams combined for a 96-30 regular-season record, and that .762 winning percentage ranks tops among all San Francisco general managers in the modern-football era.
Oh, and McVay’s 49ers never missed the playoffs during his tenure either, tacking on three more Super Bowls in the process.
Yes, there’s a reason why the Niners named their NFL Draft room, the “John McVay Draft Room.”
He’s No. 1. Plain and simple.