49ers GM John Lynch provides look into how he signed Richard Sherman
Mar 21, 2018, 11:37 AM
John Lynch signed fellow Stanford alum Richard Sherman to play for the 49ers. (AP)
(AP)
Richard Sherman’s move to San Francisco may have reignited the Seahawks-49ers rivalry, but that wasn’t what was on 49ers general manager John Lynch’s mind when he signed the All-Pro cornerback.
“First and foremost, everybody loves a good rivalry but that wasn’t our intentions,” Lynch told 710 ESPN Seattle’s John Clayton on Wednesday. “Our intentions were to make our football team better and we had a need at cornerback.”
49ers fans have concerns about Richard Sherman
And after an agreed-upon trade with the Broncos to bring Aqib Talib to the 49ers fell apart, Lynch turned his attention to the rumors of the Seahawks letting Sherman hit the open market.
“There had been a lot of talk that Richard was going to be coming available but no one knew it. When he did, we pounced on it and we had done our homework,” Lynch said.
Lynch, himself a former All-Pro strong safety who was released for similar salary cap reasons in 2004 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, knew how the chance to play the Seahawks twice a year as a member of the 49ers would appeal to Sherman.
“I’ve been in his shoes. I had been in that situation. Do you still love your old team and do you still value all the times you’ve had there? Absolutely. But it’s kinda like growing up and playing a pickup game against your brother – you want to beat him bad. I know that’s in Richard.
“He has great respect for everybody up there in Seattle, as well he should. They’ve been a tremendous organization, and they are, and he’s got great respect for that, as do we. But that doesn’t mean we don’t want to beat them.”
Lynch and Sherman are both Stanford alums, and the 49ers GM said that factored into him watching Sherman’s career closely when he was an NFL on FOX broadcaster before joining the San Francisco front office in 2017. Something about Sherman stood out to him during that time, as well.
“Everyone talks about the quarterbacks as the most astute and the football IQ,” Lynch said. “I felt like Richard was the guy that had the highest football IQ of a non-quarterback that I had met in my time and so of course you want that to be a part of your organization.”
You can find Clayton’s full interview with Lynch embedded above or at this link.
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