SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- It was just two weeks ago that new San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch wasn't even involved in the team's search to replace Trent Baalke.

Lynch was handling his normal duties as a color analyst for Fox and the Niners were chipping away at a list of candidates that went nine deep. Then, as Lynch tells it, he broadcast the NFC divisional playoff game between the Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks. That was the first domino in a series of events that led to the Niners' surprising hire of Lynch, who has never worked in an NFL personnel department.

So what did broadcasting a game that didn't directly involve the 49ers have to do with Lynch? The answer is Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan.

At the time, word had begun to spread Shanahan was going to become San Francisco's new coach when Atlanta's season came to an end. In the meantime, 49ers CEO Jed York and executive vice president of football operations Paraag Marathe were seeking a general manager who could work in lockstep with Shanahan.

Lynch and Shanahan nearly overlapped in Tampa Bay when Lynch was still playing and Shanahan was working as an offensive assistant, but Lynch departed for the Denver Broncos that offseason. There, Lynch played for Shanahan's father, Mike.

While York had said prior experience working together wasn't a prerequisite for either job, he did want the new regime to have some familiarity and an easy rapport. For all of their experience working through the scouting ranks, none of the nine candidates had a direct tie to Shanahan, which made none of them a slam dunk hire in the eyes of the Niners.

After Atlanta's win against Seattle, Lynch circled back to Shanahan, something he said is normal.

"Somewhere in that week after, Kyle and I caught up as we often do after a game that I broadcast of his and just told him how impressed I was and at that time I know that he was interviewing for a lot of jobs and we just started a conversation," Lynch said. "And at some point I indicated to him that, 'Hey, you know Kyle three or four years ago I had conversations with the Denver Broncos about getting into management. In the recent months I’ve had a couple situations that arose with prospective owners and I’ve sat down with them and kind of shared my philosophies.'"

Having played for the Broncos and lived in Denver when John Elway was making his transition from player to management, Lynch said he had developed an itch to potentially someday do the same, something he conveyed to Shanahan.

"John Elway is one of my good friends and I watched him," Lynch said. "I was living in Denver when he went through that process. He was kind enough to invite me into the building for offseason meetings and such. That’s kind of been out there and I always said, I even said to my bosses at Fox if the right situation arose that it would be something that I would have to consider. Like I said, Kyle and I were in a conversation, he seemed to get excited, at that point he turned it over to Jed and Paraag and the rest moved fairly quickly.”

Indeed it did. The past two weeks featured a series of clandestine meetings between York and Lynch. Lynch spent the night at York's home last week and traveled with York and Marathe to meet with Shanahan in Atlanta over the weekend. With each passing conversation, Lynch said he could feel the momentum building toward York giving him the opportunity. It finally did on Sunday evening when the 49ers made it official.

Of course, without the mutual admiration between Shanahan and Lynch, it never would have happened.

"I thought he was the catch, and this is long before I was ever thinking in this role, I was just thinking in my job as an analyst, I thought he was the catch of this head-coaching cycle," Lynch said. "I really did. I think it’s one of the best years I’ve seen a coordinator have. But when I talked to Matt Ryan and the players on this team, they spoke of the leadership and the presence that Kyle had in front of that room. I think that in this league, again, I get to see a very global outlook of the league and there’s a lot of really good coordinators, but there’s some that really separate themselves. I just thought Kyle, he really did that this year. He has impressed me for a long time. This year he put it all together. And it wasn’t just calling plays. It was setting up plays and he was doing things and as soon as I got in front of him and saw the other part, his philosophies and how they marry with mine and all those things it just got me really excited."