The San Francisco 49ers are headed to the Super Bowl with Brock Purdy under center a year after the young quarterback injured his elbow in the NFC title game.
But as recently as this offseason, rumors swirled that the 49ers were looking at other quarterbacks in case Purdy didn’t recover from his injury to start at the beginning of the season.
One of the quarterbacks rumored to be on the 49ers’ radar was Tom Brady, who had just recently retired from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
49ers general manager John Lynch addressed the rumor on the “The Eye Test for Two” podcast with Clark Judge and Ira Kaufman and explained that any conversations about Brady taking over as the starting quarterback for Purdy in 2023 were purely hypothetical and would only have been legitimized if Purdy couldn’t heal in time to start Week 1.
“At some point, [49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan] said, ‘Look, I guess the one way you’re not a starter if you’re healthy is if we go get someone like Brady,’” Lynch said via Pro Football Talk. “And I presume that’s what happened, but anytime you mention something like that, it’s obviously going to make quite a story.”
Finally, someone from the 49ers is asked about Brock Purdy’s claim that Kyle Shanahan tried to get Tom Brady to be the starter in 2023; G.M. John Lynch has chimed in. https://t.co/c3AFsNn3Mn
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) February 2, 2024
Lynch added that the 49ers weren’t sure if Purdy would recover from elbow surgery in time and that backup Trey Lance was also dealing with an injury that forced him to miss most of the 2022 season.
So, with major questions at quarterback, Lynch and Shanahan appeared willing to go with someone like Brady who could keep the team afloat in 2023 as they made another Super Bowl run.
Fortunately, Purdy returned and now the 49ers are still in the Super Bowl.
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