We would probably never recover from seeing Tom Brady in a Kyle Shanahan offense but the football gods clearly had other plans. After the 2019 season, which was widely regarded as Brady’s worst non-injury-plagued year with the New England Patriots (where he threw for 4,057 yards, 24 touchdowns and eight interceptions), the iconic quarterback chose to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after 20 long years in Boston.
However, per multiple reports, Brady seemingly reached out to the San Francisco 49ers before moving to Tampa Bay. At the time, with Brady’s former teammate Jimmy Garoppolo under center, the Niners were fresh off a trip to the Super Bowl in Miami where they were beaten by Patrick Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs. Kyle Shanahan ultimately decided to stick with Garoppolo, a decision that didn’t quite pay off, whereas Brady racked up another Super Bowl over in Tampa Bay by beating the Chiefs themselves.
On Tim Kawakami’s The TK Show podcast this week, Kyle Shanahan cleared the air on what really went down during 2020 free agency. The 49ers head coach said:
“After the 2019 season, that was Jimmy’s first year as a starter in his career. He did some really good things and we almost won a Super Bowl. He was a young quarterback we had only played with him one year. To get a call a few weeks after that where Tom Brady wanted to come play for us, that was one of the hardest things I’ve ever gone through in my life.”
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Kyle Shanahan explains why 49ers decided against Tom Brady move
Shanahan added that it was his dream to coach Tom Brady considering he was the best quarterback ever. But Shanahan was also cognizant of the opportunity they had given Garoppolo. The Niners HC said:
“To sit and risk that young quarterback with – I forget how old he [Tom Brady] was at that time, 41 or whatever – I kept thinking what if he comes in at that age, pulls a hamstring, and now I’ve messed up Jimmy.
“It wasn’t a fun decision. But I thought, in the long term, it was something we couldn’t mess with. We had to stick with Jimmy at the time. Nothing against Jimmy but it was hard to avoid Tom.”
But avoid Tom Brady they did. The Jimmy Garoppolo era didn’t exactly get Shanahan where they wanted to go, so they swiftly ditched that approach for Trey Lance (which didn’t work either). The Niners ultimately ended up with Brock Purdy, who was the final pick in the 2022 NFL Draft (which wasn’t seen as a QB-friendly class). In any case, the Purdy era has been much more successful for the Niners, who made the Super Bowl earlier this year.