The Tom Brady rumors involving the 49ers can stop for now. Chris Simms of Pro Football Talk on Sunday reported that while the 49ers were on Brady’s list of desired destinations in free agency, the team won’t pursue the 42-year-old quarterback.
Via PFT’s Mike Florio:
“It was Tom Brady’s No. 1 choice . . . to go to San Francisco and be the starting quarterback,” Simms says, adding that the 49ers eventually declined to pursue Brady.
It never seemed particularly reasonable for the 49ers to move on from Jimmy Garoppolo after one full season as a starter in which he went 13-3 and took the team to a Super Bowl while posting better numbers than Brady. Now Simms, who is one of 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan’s best friends, is ruling it out entirely.
This also tracks with the votes of confidence Garoppolo received from Shanahan and general manager John Lynch in the weeks following the team’s loss in Super Bowl LIV.
Sticking with Garoppolo always made the most sense considering where the 49ers’ organization stands. He’s on a reasonable contract, and succeeded in 2019 despite spending most of the offseason rehabbing his torn ACL. Going into 2020, he’ll have a full offseason of preparation and a better resumé to lean back on.
Even if Shanahan does have reservations about Garoppolo’s ceiling, not giving him another season to build toward that ceiling would’ve been an overreaction that cut a potential long-term contender short.
San Francisco has a slew of tough decisions to make this offseason, but committing to Garoppolo and not pursuing Brady keeps them from adding another massive choice to their already full plate.
