John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan have been rocking together in the Bay since 2017, building the 49ers from the ground up into a consistent NFC contender.
It wasn't easy and it didn't happen overnight, but seven years later, they've established a culture of what it means to sport the Red and Gold. So now, Lynch said it's become easier to find new players to rep those colors during every year's NFL draft or via free agency who he believes will honor that culture and be the right fit.
"I think it's easier," Lynch said on ESPN's "The Pat McAfee Show" on Thursday. "The continuity of Kyle and I working together and early on, we went to great lengths in terms of finding exactly what we want in terms of the talent and the spirit. What are the qualities that we want in a Niner? And those things are fluid and they change, but we have a saying around here. Our wide receivers coach Leonard Hankerson tells those guys, 'No block, no rock.' So if you want the ball, you better be blocking for your teammates.
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"You see Christian McCaffrey doing it for Deebo Samuel. Brandon Aiyuk is tremendous, I love the way that guy plays. His spirit. Jauan Jennings, taking the dude from Green Bay into the Gatorade [cooler]. That stuff is contagious and that's what we've talked about. We want guys who are contagiously competitive. We have a standard and once that standard is set, if you think the guy is made of the right stuff, he might not have been asked to block like that in college, so you have to do some predicting of let's get to know the person, what was he asked to do, are you willing to do that.
"So those are the players we like to bring in. Like-minded people and we have a standard in which we play and the players, it's up to them to withhold that standard."
McAfee commended Lynch for putting together a group of guys who give it their all on the field, even doing jobs that might be out of their comfort zone to help one of their teammates.
San Francisco 49ers
"Unselfish" is a word that constantly is repeated by 49ers players when describing each other and the team.
That is what makes San Francisco's offense so unique, as a team filled with elite playmakers is willing to do the little things to help others shine on the field. Some days it's Aiyuk, some days it's Samuel. A lot of days it's McCaffrey, but even when those players aren't filling up the stat sheet or touches aren't as high as the guy's next to them, they likely are doing other things to help the team.
And that is 49ers culture.
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