John Lynch has nothing but love for former 49ers running back Raheem Mostert, who ascended as one of the league's most explosive players after being given an opportunity by Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan.
However, as Mostert made waves over the past five days with his comments on the 49ers and his former quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, there was one thing the running back said that rubbed Lynch the wrong way. The 49ers general manager joined KNBR 680's "Tolbert & Copes" on Thursday where he was asked about Mostert's comments.
“I got a lot of love for Raheem,” Lynch said. “You know, the only thing I — not take offense, but I take issue with is, we’re always going to do the best thing for our players’ health.
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What Lynch is referring to are Mostert's comments indicating the 49ers put pressure on him to return earlier than he was comfortable with from his season-ending knee injury in Week 1 against the Detroit Lions last season, and the team eventually using Mostert's decision to get surgery as a knock against him in free agency last winter.
In an interview with GoLongTD.com's Tyler Dunne, Mostert was asked about teams pressuring players into returning early from injuries and claimed that was his experience with the 49ers.
Shanahan responded to Mostert's claims on a next-day conference call with reporters after the 49ers' win over the New Orleans Saints, claiming that the decision to get surgery was one of the multiple opinions at the time between team doctors and Mostert's camp, and that a difference in opinion is not uncommon between players and the team.
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Regardless of the past week's drama, Lynch always will have a soft spot for the 30-year-old running back and understands how his comments might have been taken out of context, which Mostert claimed in a radio interview with KNBR on Tuesday.
"So that is what it is, but I have a lot of love for him as a person," Lynch said. "There’s a lot of respect and he’s a really good football player. So we’re gonna have to be ready. Sometimes things get said. Raheem felt like a lot of the things, I know, were out of context.”