It wasn’t long ago the 49ers were staring at a 4-12 record and in need of some serious roster overhauls to elevate themselves to contender status. General manager John Lynch and the front office went to work in the offseason and wound up building a roster in three years that has the 49ers as the No. 1 seed in the NFC and on the verge of their seventh Super Bowl berth.
Lynch has overseen a dramatic change to the team’s personnel in his three seasons. Some of the key acquisitions include George Kittle in the fifth round of the 2017 draft and Fred Warner in the third round of the 2018 draft. He traded a second-round pick for Jimmy Garoppolo at the trade deadline in 2017, and signed cornerback Richard Sherman prior to the 2018 campaign.
This offseason he made perhaps the two biggest acquisitions when he traded a second-round pick for pass rusher Dee Ford, and used the No. 2 overall pick on defensive end Nick Bosa. Those two alone have helped catapult the 49ers’ defense to one of the league’s best. Kwon Alexander was the first free agent signing of the offseason and quickly became the heartbeat of the 49ers’ defense. The team also drafted Deebo Samuel in the second round, and linebacker Dre Greenlaw in the fifth round. Greenlaw became a crucial piece of the defense filling in for Alexander when Alexander went down with a pectoral injury. Another key offseason move was re-signing defensive back Jimmie Ward. Ward, while injured through most of his first five seasons, has been a rock in the 49ers’ secondary and landed on the list of Pro Bowl alternates.
Lynch’s most important move of the year might’ve come during the year when he shipped a pair of draft picks to the Broncos in exchange for wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders. Sanders helped elevate the 49ers’ passing game to a new level that may have allowed them to get over the hump and into the NFC championship game.
It’s hard to find a GM more worthy of the Executive of the Year nod given the dramatic changes the 49ers made to their roster in just one offseason. While they would’ve been better in 2018 had Jimmy Garoppolo stayed healthy all year, they still went from fringe playoff team to the favorite to be the NFC’s representative in the Super Bowl.
