Recapping John Lynch’s pre-draft press conference, where he talked about Lance, Brock Purdy, Brandon Aiyuk, and the draft process
It didn’t take long for 49ers general manager John Lynch to address a potential Trey Lance trade. He was asked, what’s been your level of transparency with Trey?
“Generally, our policy, or if we’re having discussions. That with Mike McGlinchey, it became apparent last year that it’ll be tough to re-sign. I brought Mike up and said, “we are gonna talk to some teams.
If we’re fielding in-bound calls, we’ll be doing that every day. I think with the sensitivity of Trey’s position, it’s a little different. Trey and I have talked. Trey knows exactly where the situation is… There has been good communication, and we are excited for him to go compete for a job.”
As for any potential suitors, Lynch said it’s the job of other teams to reach out, but added, “I think there’s a lot of smoke, really. It hasn’t been extremely active.”
That checks out, as the asking price should be high for Lance from a 49ers perspective. But on the other side of the coin, why would a team that isn’t obnoxiously desperate for a quarterback part ways with an early draft pick?
A follow-up was asked whether teams are asking about Lance’s availability if he won’t be the starter, and Lynch said frankly, “no.”
By the sounds of it, Lance isn’t going anywhere, but he’s not “the guy.”
It’s all about Brock
As for Brock Purdy, Lynch said, “Brock’s making great progress. We’re six weeks out.” The team is happy with his progress, but there’s no information at the moment other than things are going well with Purdy’s rehab process.
Lynch was asked whether the 49ers are interested in Lamar Jackson, and Lynch only mentioned Purdy during his answer:
“You look into everything. We seem to be linked to everything. I can tell you how convicted we are on Brock, on this current group of guys. A lot of those things, I think you’re limited with the way our roster is set up. With those players, there’s more than just Lamar. Tremendous players. MVP type players. We like where we’re at.”
So, for Trey, the team is glad he’s healthy and wants to see him compete. But, with Brock, it’s a different tune. That’s tough to ignore, and easy to see why all signs point to Purdy being QB1.
BA and Bosa
Nick Bosa’s record-breaking extension will happen this summer. Lynch said, “that hotline is closed. It never opened,” when asked whether teams are asking about a potential trade for him.
Lynch wasn’t as candid at first when that same question arose surrounding Brandon Aiyuk, before saying he’d be a part of the future:
“I’m not going to get into specifics on people. We love Brandon Aiyuk and are excited about Brandon being a part of this team. We’ll just leave it at that.
You can’t keep everyone. We’re trying to do something special this year, and Brandon is going to be a part of that. And beyond, as well.”
Lynch said he believes “the best is yet to come” for Aiyuk. He also acknowledged that it’s a fair question whether or not the team is considering moving on from Aiyuk. The reason the team can’t keep everyone is that they can’t pay everyone.
The 49ers don’t have to make a final decision until after the draft next Monday on if they will exercise the fifth-year option for Aiyuk and Javon Kinlaw. He said the team wants to sit down and speak to both players first.
Aiyuk is the type of player you trade up for in the draft, which happened, and give a big second contract to, which should happen.