The NFL team San Francisco 49ers have decided to hire Hall of Fame candidate and Fox Sports Analyst John Lynch to be their General Manager. The team announced this update on Sunday night which is termed to be a six-year deal.

Less than even a week before he was eligible to vote into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the former Stanford standout Lynch is returning as the General Manager to the Bay Arena. As per League sources, after offering Lynch a six-year deal, the 49ers are also hoping to offer Atlanta Falcons' offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan a six-year deal to be their head coach.

The 49ers' idea have always been to tie the contract lengths of their General Manager and Head Coach. Lynch spent almost the whole of Thursday and Friday meeting with the San Francisco officials discussing over a good deal for both parties. He spent Thursday night at the house of 49ers' owner Jed York, before the team management flew him to San Diego on Friday night so that he can attend a family function. He finally accepted the job on Sunday evening.

In the past, he has had no front-office experience but has enough connections previously with the front-office jobs. Few people in Denver strongly believed he would be a candidate to replace John Elway one day, though that deal never materialized.

Owner York talked about the decision on Sunday night, he believed he is taking a risk in puttinh Lynch into a front-office job, but further revealed the input of Shanahan to this decision. He explains that there are plenty of opportunities in NFL but people don't want to take those opportunities. He is confident in both John and Kyle, he talked to Kyle and the response was that John is one of the most prepared TV people.

He knows there will be sad moments in this period, but he believes in future long-term success for the team. The idea to hire Lynch was just his own. He personally called Shanahan and volunteered for the job about a week ago.

The 49ers confirmed that they had interviews with upto 9 General Manager candidates after firing Trent Baalke on 1st January. None of the candidates was Lynch, They narrowed the initial group of nine down to four, and finally it then came down to two, after Green Bay Packers executives Brian Gutekunst and Eliot Wolf removed themselves from consideration.

From there, York and executive Paraag Marathe had second interviews with Arizona Cardinals' vice president of player personnel Terry McDonough and Minnesota Vikings' assistant general manager George Paton over the weekend. Throughout the process, the competition was tough but they had to find someone who could work in lockstep with Shanahan. In the end, they turned to Lynch.

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