The offseason rumor mill is swirling, and it’s not limited to players. Before he was the 49ers’ general manager, John Lynch was a stellar color analyst at Fox, but was stuck as the No. 2 under the team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, discernibly without any clear opportunity to move up.
While he left for the 49ers’ general manager job, it appears television executives may hope to lure him back to their side, especially now that Aikman is departing Fox for a reported five-year deal with ESPN worth somewhere around $20 million per year.
Per the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand, Fox is considering Greg Olsen, Sean McVay, Sean Payton, potentially NBC’s Drew Brees and, drumroll… Lynch.
“Fox will also wait if a mystery candidate, someone not apparent right now, arises,” Marchand wrote. “49ers GM and ex-TV game analyst John Lynch could fall into this category for either Amazon or Fox.”
Could Lynch make a return to television? It would certainly pay more than what he’s making as a general manager and come without the stresses of that job.
Just before the offseason began, Boomer Esiason appeared on Boston radio station WEEI with Greg Hill and said he could see Lynch making the move back.
“The thing to watch is what happens with John Lynch, their general manager,” Esiason said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if John goes back into television anytime soon. He’s had a really great run there and there’s really a lot of quality front office people. I think he may be tired of doing what he’s doing, too. So that’s something to watch here in the offseason.”
Lynch, though, pushed back on that comment from Esiason in his end-of-season press conference.
“I can tell you and everyone that my commitment right now is to this organization,” Lynch said. “We’re just coming off a season. My commitment is to the 49ers, the York family, to Kyle [Shanahan].”
That was “right now,” at the conclusion of an emotionally taxing season. If Lynch did leave, the 49ers would have a ready-made replacement in assistant general manager Adam Peters.