John Lynch says he'd have five rings if Jimmy Garoppolo was his QB in Tampa

Lynch was very impressed with Garoppolo's first start last week

Before he became a general manager, John Lynch was a broadcaster. Before that, he had a long and productive career as an NFL safety, playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Denver Broncos. Lynch's teams in Tampa had some of the best defenses in modern NFL history, and after the 2002 season they won a Super Bowl against the Oakland Raiders. 

That Super Bowl is remembered not just because of the great Tampa Bay defense and the Jon Gruden battle (Gruden had left the Raiders to coach the Bucs before the 2002 season), but because the Buccaneers won despite having Brad Johnson as their quarterback. Johnson was a solid but not anywhere near spectacular player, and the Bucs won the Super Bowl anyway. 

The Bucs aren't the only team to win a Super Bowl with a nondescript quarterback and an elite defense, of course. (The Ravens have done it twice, for example.) And in any event, winning one Super Bowl is an impressive enough feat for any team. But Lynch can't help but think what might have happened if the Bucs had a high-level quarterback to go with their stifling defense. 

Now that he's San Francisco's GM, he thinks he has himself a high-level quarterback on his hands. There's a reason he traded what should be a very high second-round pick for former Patriots backup Jimmy Garoppolo. And Lynch is confident that if Garoppolo was his quarterback during his time with the Bucs, he'd have a whole lot more NFL-sanctioned jewelry.

"I say, man, I could have had five rings if I had a guy like that because in Tampa we never had that," Lynch laughed during a radio appearance, per the San Francisco Chronicle.

The 49ers were apparently so impressed with Garoppolo's first start as a 49er last week that they uniformly applauded wide receiver Marquise Goodwin for giving Garoppolo his seat on the team bus. That level of respect for the performance extended to the general manager's office.

"To me, I think great leaders, great players ... I think the greatest quality that you can't measure: Do they make people around them better?'" Lynch said. "I don't think you can argue that he didn't do that for everybody on the field the other day."