It flew under the radar during all the craziness last Thursday, but 49ers CEO Jed York appeared on the KNBR 49ers draft show at Levi’s Stadium.
In York’s first extended comments since hiring John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan in early February, the acting owner of the 49ers discussed the dynamic between his GM and head coach, and how well they’ve handled disagreements — scenarios that plagued his previous regimes.
“With (Lynch), the whole is greater than the sum of the parts,” York said. “He makes sure you get every bit of value out of the entire organization. And he brings people together. Again, Kyle, he’s very focused on what he wants. You’ve seen the disagreements where it’s like, Kyle, we know you like this guy but we think we can get him a little later than where you like him. They don’t just talk it through, they watch it through with film. It sounds cliche to say that, but they will argue through film and they’ve come to an agreement on everything. It’s not like, well we disagree let’s move on. It’s we disagree? Why do we disagree? And we’re going to come to a resolution on anybody that’s going to be on our board.”
Rebuilding this franchise is going to require patience from everyone involved, especially York. San Francisco has had three consecutive head coaching changes and the turnover has impacted the development of younger players on the roster. Now that he’s finally got the pairing he wants with his football leaders, York is willing to publicly say he isn’t expecting a playoff run these first two seasons. That’s a big step for the CEO.
“That’s what allowed us to go into the second pick overall, because there’s certainly guys that you like and know that we are open for business,” York said. “It’s not like you need to see a deep in the playoffs this year or next year for job security for these guys. We know. Kyle and I are about a year and a half apart in age. When we talked about it, it was we’re going to work together for decades. And when we look back, and count up championships that we won together, that’s how we’re going to measure success. Not how quickly did you win one, but how many did you win over the period of time that you’re working together.
“And it allows you to say, okay, even if it’s not full-freight to come up to No. 2, we’re a team that had two wins. Let’s be honest, we can use help in multiple spots. So a third round pick, a fourth round pick there, that’s going to help us more than just one guy sitting there at No. 2.”
Did York have a role during the draft process?
“I would say it’s more of the onlooker with positive thoughts,” York said. “Walking through the different scenarios and making sure we’re thinking through things. They’re focused on the players and this and that. And it’s how do we extract value from the draft? What are we thinking about? What are we doing? And like some of the earlier questions, some guys have character issues, that’s where me and my family will weigh in much more so than — you don’t have to weigh in on Solomon Thomas. But there are other guys that aren’t perfect off the field, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not good players, doesn’t mean that they’re not good people, and if you have a plan for them. And that’s really where I’ll play a role in the draft.”