The San Francisco 49ers went outside the box by hiring former NFL player John Lynch to be their general manager. It was a move that caught a lot of people by surprise considering Lynch himself has no front office experience. In fact, his post-NFL career has been spent broadcasting for Fox Sports.
It was also a shock considering ESPN’s Louis Riddick was the only media personality mentioned as a possibility for the job.
Now with Lynch and new head coach Kyle Shanahan in the mix, San Francisco looks to rebuild the foundation of an organization that’s fallen on hard times recently.
As it relates to Riddick, the former scout now claims that he was almost hired by San Francisco in a packaged deal that would have also brought in Josh McDaniels as head coach.
None of this should really be considered a surprise. Both Riddick and McDaniels interviewed with the 49ers before they ultimately hired their current duo. They were also seen as a potential packaged deal before McDaniels himself decided to remain with the New England Patriots as their offensive coordinator (more on that here).
“It was either going to be him (McDaniels) and I, or it wasn’t,” Riddick said of a pairing in San Francisco, via Pro Football Talk. “Josh, for his personal reasons, decided that now wasn’t a good time. When he decided that — which I was on board with that, obviously. Therefore, I wasn’t in the running anymore.”
It’s an interesting dynamic to look at.
As PFT notes, Riddick previously claimed the 49ers’ head coaching opening to be the best of the bunch this offseason. After he was passed up for the job, he ranked it as the worst potential opening. That type of flip-flop would make D.C. proud.
As it stands, the 49ers have their new power tandem and Riddick himself remains at ESPN as one of the most-respected analysts in the NFL world.