John Lynch remembers Kyle Shanahan’s ease after the 49ers landed their two top prospects during the 2025 NFL Draft.
In Monday’s edition of the “Chris Simms Unbuttoned” podcast, San Francisco’s president of football operations/general manager explained why his partner and 49ers coach was relieved by the team selecting Georgia edge rusher Mykel Williams at No. 11 and Texas defensive tackle Alfred Collins at No. 43.
“We lost a lot of D-line. After our first two picks … Kyle was like, ‘Dude, I think I just exhaled for the first time in three months.’ Because we had added two guys in Mykel Williams and Alfred Collins that we felt were integral and the guys we wanted,” Lynch cheerfully explained. “If [the draft] worked out perfectly, we’d have these two guys, and we got those two guys.
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SIGN UP HERE “It was a long process – it’s ongoing, it doesn’t stop now. But that’s kind of how our mini reset – I say mini reset, but at the end of this offseason, we might be a top-two spending team; I don’t know if Jed York would agree with the ‘reset’ part.”
Shanahan needed that breather.
The 49ers have gone through so much since narrowly losing Super Bowl LVIII to the Kansas City Chiefs in February 2024. Everything from tragedies, injuries, big-time contract negotiations and general organizational changes has fogged San Francisco over the last 14 months, leaving Lynch and Shanahan to become experts in crisis management.
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And that’s before mentioning the 49ers finished an NFC West-worst 6-11 during the 2024 NFL season with a blatant need for help in the trenches. Nonetheless, the 2025 draft offered San Francisco a moment to regroup.
Lynch added, “If Mykel wasn’t there, it likely would’ve been an offensive player,” and that the 49ers received eight to 10 phone calls regarding trades on Draft Day – April 24.
Fortunately for San Francisco, the players it wanted were available.
“This year, we had a lot of open spots, so we had to fill those,” Lynch said. “And we were fortunate that it aligned in such a way that we could go get a bunch of defense and then start adding some guys that we thought could help us now and into the future on the offensive side of the ball.”
The 49ers selected six defensive players and five offensive players; as Lynch explained, San Francisco had needs everywhere.
The additions of Williams and Collins, though, were the most crucial for the 49ers, as their D-line often struggled to generate a push in 2024, particularly against the run. It makes sense why Shanahan was able to exhale after his team addressed one of its biggest needs on paper.