John Lynch: ‘Yea, we’ve started discussions with various players whose contracts are up.’

Last week, the San Francisco 49ers signed cornerback K’Waun Williams to a three-year contract extension that could keep him in town until 2020. It marked the first contract extension (excluding Jeremy Kerley) of the new John Lynch, Kyle Shanahan era.

There is a lot of football left in the 2017 season, and 2018 free agency is still a ways off. However, we might see more contract extensions in the coming weeks and months. Lynch made an appearance on 95.7 The Game Friday morning, and they asked him if there had been any discussions with the representatives for Eric Reid and Carlos Hyde. I don’t know if his “Yea” to open the comment was specific to them, or just a way to start the sentence. But given his follow-up specifically about those two guys, it suggests they have had at least some kind of discussion.

You can listen to the full interview here, but I’ve transcribed the pertinent portion below.

Yea, we’ve started discussions with various players whose contracts are up. That’s something we’re dealing with on a daily basis. I think in Eric’s situation, it was a new system, and then he got hurt. And so, other guys are playing well at that position, but Eric’s a guy we’re really high on. That’s what we wanted to do, we wanted to create competition at each position group. And we have that at the safety position. When Eric comes back, he’ll get to go play.

Carlos has really embraced what we’re doing. I think he was excited, as most running backs are when they hear they have the opportunity to play for Kyle Shanahan and Bobby Turner. Because the fact of the matter is, backs do well in this offense — they always have. We felt Carlos had some skills that fit. We were thrilled with his buy in. He changed his body type, he got lighter, in much better shape, and it’s showing. It’s paying dividends on the field, and we’re thrilled with the way he’s playing. He’s gotta continue to do it, and with Eric we’re looking forward to getting him back.