Report: Amazon tried to hire 49ers GM John Lynch as analyst for 'TNF' games

Amazon will have the “Thursday Night Football” TV package beginning next season, and it still needs some announcers. The e-commerce and tech giant pursued Troy Aikman, but he signed a massive deal with ESPN. They reportedly are close to hiring Al Michaels as a play-by-play announcer. But Michaels may be waiting to see whom they hire for an analyst first.

According to a report from the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand, Amazon tried to hire San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch to work as a game analyst.

Lynch played from 1993-2008 and then joined Fox upon retiring from football. He served as a TV analyst until 2016, before deciding to go into front-office work for the Niners.

Amazon tried to get Lynch to return to the TV side of things, but Marchand said talks between the parties did not lead to a deal. Amazon will eventually end up with broadcasters, but its announcing team has not been hired at this point.

Lynch’s tenure with San Francisco began in 2017 with two consecutive losing seasons under him and Kyle Shanahan. But then they reached the Super Bowl in the 2019 season. This season, the team went 10-7 and made a surprising run to the conference championship game.

Lynch is having success as an executive and probably feels motivated by the challenges of building a team and trying to win a Super Bowl.