The connections between new San Francisco 49ers defensive end Solomon Thomas and general manager John Lynch offer all sorts of crazy coincidences. We learned about the two men taking a class together at Stanford. It turns out, that led to even more.
Lynch was recently on The Rich Eisen Show, and in the link above, he talks about the previous friendship with Thomas. It turns out, last December, when Thomas was trying to decide whether or not he should turn pro, he contacted Lynch to get his advice. Both men had said that they remained in touch after the class, but this is the most specific detail we’ve gotten about that.
Lynch was still working with FOX at that point, and Thomas asked him for advice on the decision to go pro because he was torn on it. Lynch would not tell him whether he should or shouldn’t because he was friends with Stanford head coach David Shaw, but he was willing to talk to football people he knew to get their evaluation. He spoke to Seattle Seahawk GM John Schneider, then Denver Broncos director of college scouting Adam Peters, and Arizona Cardinals GM Steve Keim.
They all had good things to say about Thomas. Lynch passed that along, but also said the best thing he could do was go into the then upcoming Sun Bowl and put together a great performance. He had a strong game, sacking Mitchell Trubisky once, and adding two tackles for losses. It helped fuel his offseason momentum, and next thing you know, he was going No. 3 to the San Francisco 49ers.