How 49ers Determined They Wanted Jimmy Garoppolo Over Tom Brady

Sounds like Jimmy Garoppolo didn’t hear of the 49ers’ interest in Tom Brady through the media, but rather San Francisco’s general manager himself.

While it is tough to say the Niners necessarily were interested in Brady, when they heard he would consider playing for them, they did what any good organization would do: They did their due diligence on the quarterback.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, John Lynch indicated when the Niners decided they were sticking with Garoppolo, they told the quarterback himself.

“We went back and took a hard look at Jimmy,” Lynch told Breer. “We grinded for a period of three, four days. And I think we both came back and said, ‘You know what? We’ve got the long-term answer in our building right now, and we feel really strongly about that.’ As enticing as it might be — and we felt like it was a responsibility to take a look, because that’s a very unique situation — we did that, we talked with Jimmy, and told him just what we did.

“I think he appreciated that. And the great news is we’re more convicted than ever that Jimmy’s the guy that we want to work with going forward. We feel like he’s got a lot more in him. Shoot, he was a huge reason we were in the Super Bowl last year, and why we have every intention of getting back and finishing the job.”

Garoppolo is a pro, so he certainly had to have understood that it wouldn’t be pragmatic of the organization to not do their research on Brady and Garoppolo.

That said, certainly he must be feeling pretty good right now.

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