Programming note: Watch Matt Maiocco’s full “49ers Game Plan” interview with John Lynch on NBC Sports Bay Area at 9:30 p.m. PT on Friday.

While the 49ers are preparing for their prime-time matchup with the Chicago Bears, general manager John Lynch and San Francisco’s front office are entrenched in a bigger-picture focus.

During an interview with Matt Maiocco on NBC Sports Bay Area’s “49ers Game Plan,” Lynch revealed how San Francisco’s brain trust already is preparing for the 2026 NFL season and beyond as the team sits on the cusp of a playoff run in 2025.

Lynch began by clarifying that the front office still plays a critical role in the 49ers’ week-to-week roster construction, before going into detail about all the hard work that currently is being laid to set San Francisco up for success next year.

“First of all, I think the front office is very involved in the roster construction on a weekly basis,” Lynch told Maiocco. “You always want to be improving so there’s practice squads, there’s movement there, there’s replacing players on the roster as it gets hurt. So working in conjuction with Kyle to have our roster as good as it can be.”

The 2026 NFL Draft is about four months out, but the 49ers scouts assigned with driving the information gathering process on prospects recently convened in the Bay Area for an important meeting.

“In terms of next year, our scouts were all in for the [Week 15 matchup vs. the Tennessee Titans], we bring them in once a year. And right after that, that following week is draft meetings. So we just had our college, what we call our ‘Winter Meetings’ and go through all our draftable players and the free agents. It’s a long week. 5 a.m. till eight at night, Tarik Ahmad and Dom DeCicco, they run a tough ship and those guys are in there but we get a lot done. It’s kind of the first iteration of that draft class that we’ve been watching all along, and we start setting our board.”

While the groundwork for the draft is being built out, San Francisco’s pro personnel department also is laying the foundation for the veteran free agents the 49ers could potentially pursue in the coming offseason.

“This following week after the Bears, we’ll get into our free agent landscape meetings and we’ll start talking about our first introduction — and when I say first introduction I mean we watch players all the time and you’re always tagging the ones you know are free agents,” Lynch explained. “You start to go through Fred Gammage and his staff on the pro personnel department. They’ll take you through the upcoming free agents, the ones they think are good fits for us. We do a comprehensive look so that we’re ready come the offseason to go to our coaches and for me to go to Kyle like, ‘These are some guys we think would be good fits.’ Then they’ll take it and start watching.

“It never stops, it’s kind of perpetual motion, but that’s what you have to do to always be ready for what’s to come.”

Lynch confirmed the 49ers’ first draft board for the 2026 class is up, but that there will be plenty of changes in the coming months before San Francisco makes its selections.

“First draft board is up and subject to change. It will change a lot, but you got to start somewhere,” Lynch told Maiocco. “When I say, ‘start,’ a lot of these guys we’ve been watching for four years but now you start to see the strengths of the draft. And that helps you in free agency because you know, ‘maybe we don’t have to dabble in this position because we like the depth and quality of the draft class.’ So it all is a piece that works together. You’ve got to do the due diligence, you have to put in the hard work so you’re prepared for everything.”

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