Well, it appears there was a little bit of truth to the Tom Brady-49ers rumors.
San Francisco was viewed as a potential landing spot for Brady when the quarterback first entered free agency. Some immediately wrote it off as fantasy, seeing as it wouldn’t have made a ton of sense to replace Jimmy Garoppolo with a 42-year-old, despite what the Bay Area native still might have left in the tank.
Still, the 49ers did a bit of due diligence on the six-time Super Bowl champion. As general manager John Lynch explained Tuesday on “The Rich Eisen Show”, San Francisco briefly kicked around the TB12 idea before ultimately choosing to stand pat.
“When you’re talking about one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time with Tom Brady, of course you’re going to have some internal discussion,” Lynch said, as transcribed by ESPN. “And then you hear rumors that hey, he’d like to come home, that kind of thing.
“So of course Kyle and I have discussions. We’re always into getting better, so you always look at everything, especially a situation like that. But within a day or two, Kyle and I looked at each other and said, ‘You know what, we really like what we have in Jimmy.’ We love everything that he brings and we really believe it’s a long-term answer. I would tell you we’re more convinced than ever about who our quarterback is in Jimmy Garoppolo.”
It’s tough to imagine Brady is dwelling on not having the chance to play for his hometown team. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ offense already was loaded upon the QB’s arrival, and it grew even stronger Tuesday via the addition of Rob Gronkowski.
