The San Francisco 49ers made a big splash at the onset of free agency, signing one of the top available players, defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, to a four-year, $84 million deal. While team CEO Jed York has always financially supported general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan's personnel moves to improve the roster, it didn't make requesting the money any easier.
A couple of weeks ago, during the 49ers State of the Franchise event, Lynch shared the story of the conversation leading to signing Hargrave.
"We had a lot of conversations about how we make a really good team better," Lynch said. "That's a hard thing to do. You've got guys whose contracts are up. We let $80 million walk out the door this year, 16 free agents, guys like [T Mike] McGlinchey and [QB] Jimmy Garoppolo and ... [OL] Danny Brunskill and [DB] Jimmie Wards the world. And you keep going, but that's part of it.
"And that's why you constantly have to be developing talent. But what Kyle and I really talked about, and we talked to our staffs long and hard, you kind of do the review of the previous year, and you look at it every way. Kyle does something that's tremendous. Our offensive coaches watch our defense. Our defensive coaches watch our offense. They come back, they report. Our personnel is doing the same thing. And you try to get a grasp on where can we be better?
"And the thing we kept coming back to is, on the defensive line, albeit the number one defense in football, played really good defensive football, it was outstanding, but we felt like we had lost a little bit of our dominance on the D-line. When you think back to 2019, and when you were playing the Niners, you knew you were not going to have a lot of time to throw the ball. On the run game, you were going to have people penetrating. And we felt like, despite playing such good defense, we had maybe fallen off a little."
When Lynch and Shanahan took on the job of rebuilding the 49ers roster in 2017, one of the core principles they set in place was that everything had to start up front. For the defense, that meant owning a dominant defensive line.
"Those guys are going to drive the bus," Lynch continued. "And that's what we had built. We felt like that had slipped a little. Some of that being injuries, like to [DT Arik] Armstead. But we knew we had to go get a difference-maker."
So one Saturday night before the start of free agency, Lynch invited York and Shanahan to his house for dinner. Beforehand, Lynch and Shanahan discussed how to best approach York about wanting to spend that much money on a single player.
"I felt like I was asking a girl on a date," Lynch admitted. "[I told Kyle], 'Okay, here's how I'm going to start the meeting. Kyle [said], 'No, don't do it that way. Do it this way.' And I was basically going to father confession asking for money. And I said, 'Jed, like, it'd be a shame, with this team, to sit on the sidelines [during free agency].' And Jed stopped me. He said, 'Make sure it's a difference maker.' And I said, 'Okay, well, we're on the same page because we got one for you.'"
York reassured Lynch and Shanahan that as long as they were making a move for the right reasons, they had full support of the team's ownership.
"And again, if we're going to do it, just do it," York said. "And we're fortunate that we have good young quarterbacks on a roster that helps you be more flexible with your salary cap for the next few years. It's like, look, if you're going to do it, spend next year's money to get the guy that's going to be here for the next three years and make a difference. We're close, but if you're going to do it, go do it. And it was clear who they wanted to get."
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