Tom Brady joining his hometown team would have been a great story, but the hypothetical never really was close to coming to fruition.
The 49ers were labeled as a potential landing spot for Brady leading up to the start of NFL free agency. Aside from Brady’s potential interest in playing for the team he grew up rooting for, some thought San Francisco might consider a quarterback change following Jimmy Garoppolo’s mediocre performance in Super Bowl LIV.
During a recent appearance on The Athletic’s “The TK Show,” Niners head Kyle Shanahan acknowledged his team did briefly look into Brady earlier this offseason. But as Shanahan explained, it was more of San Francisco covering all of its bases, as the franchise ultimately decided it was happy with Garoppolo under center.
“All of a sudden, you hear arguably the greatest quarterback of all time is all of a sudden available, and there is a possibility that he could want to come to your team, and things like that,” Shanahan said, as transcribed by NBC Sports Bay Area. “And when you hear that stuff, and it actually is realistic, for you not to look into it, to me, would be completely irresponsible. Once we realized and heard this could be realistic — this isn’t just talk — we looked into it all, especially with the respect we have for Tom and everything, and how great of a player he is. We looked into it to try to see if it would be better for our team this year and in the future. When we weighed it all together, we didn’t think it would.
“We felt great with where we were at, and kind of confirmed how we are with Jimmy.”
It’s tough to imagine Brady is dwelling on San Francisco not making a stronger pursuit. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers featured a higher-powered offense at the time Brady signed the dotted line, and the unit only grew stronger with the addition of Rob Gronkowski.
