49ers GM John Lynch echoes Kyle Shanahan’s thoughts on report of friction

If there have been any issues going on between San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch, neither one of them is willing to admit it publicly.

Earlier in the week, Matt Miller of Bleacher Report wrote about a power struggle that is brewing between Shanahan and Lynch, with the coach supposedly wanting to focus more on scheming rather than evaluating players but not completely trusting the decisions Lynch has made. Shanahan had a very blunt response to that report when he told Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area that it is “complete bulls—.”

As far as Lynch is concerned, Shanahan said all that needs to be said. Though, he did add some of his own emphasis when speaking with Tim Kawakami of The Athletic on Thursday.

49ers GM John Lynch on the report that there is growing friction between him and Kyle Shanahan: "I think Kyle probably summed it up as succinctly as you can, when he responded 'complete b.s.' I would just add "complete and utter." Complete discussion here: https://t.co/VhkAHr21NI

— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) May 3, 2019

Lynch and Shanahan both have four years remaining on their current contracts, and Miller went as far as to say they cannot coexist for much longer and the 49ers may end up having to choose the coach over the GM.

It would be tough to imagine a reporter completely fabricating a story like that, so perhaps there is more to it than Lynch and Shanahan are letting on. Either way, the Niners desperately need Jimmy Garoppolo to stay healthy and deliver a winning season in 2019. If he can do that, any talk of drama within the front office will probably go away.