John Lynch used his candidacy for the San Francisco 49ers' general manager job as a test for the franchise's reputation for leaking information.

Lynch said he asked CEO Jed York and executive Paraag Marathe to keep his name a secret during their search for a new general manager.

"I made a big deal that this stayed quiet," Lynch said. "First of all, you know what I was doing? Part of the rumors are things fly out of that building. So I wanted to see could I trust this building, you know? And so that was part of my thinking."

When Lynch spoke to Bay Area media via conference call on Monday, he repeatedly mentioned his desire to ask Niners leadership "tough questions." 

Lynch said he wasn't afraid to address what he called the "elephant in the room."

"I'm incredibly appreciative and fortunate in this world that things stayed quiet because what that did, it allowed me to truly assess this situation, to ask the tough questions, to just kind of get with the people that I'm going to be working with and any elephant in the room, just get rid of it and ask questions," Lynch said on Monday. "I didn't need the job. So, that gave me a great position to be able to kind of just be very forward and I asked those questions, and I'm proud of the way that happened. I'm proud of the way they responded.

"A lot of people are saying, why was it so important to be secretive? I've had people ask me that. I wanted to be able to best evaluate this situation as it developed, and I thought it would be much easier if I didn't have the world breathing down my throat."