Brock Purdy recently disclosed to ESPN that, last year, head coach Kyle Shanahan designated the second-year quarterback as the San Francisco 49ers’ starter heading into the 2023 season. However, two prerequisites needed to be met for that to happen. Firstly, Purdy had to be healthy in his recovery from the torn UCL he suffered in the NFC Championship Game. Secondly, Tom Brady couldn’t be on the roster.
“I remember him (Shanahan) saying, ‘If we can get Tom Brady, we’re going to try to get him,'” Purdy said. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s the GOAT. I get it.'”
Nevertheless, Purdy felt he deserved the starting role after almost guiding the 49ers to the Super Bowl as a rookie. The 49ers also displayed significant faith in the young quarterback.
General manager John Lynch, in a conversation with Clark Judge and Ira Kaufman on the “The Eye Test for Two” podcast, addressed a question about those discussions regarding Brady and how far they progressed.
“Now, Kyle and he have a lot of conversations, and you have to understand, I think, the context,” Lynch said. “And I don’t know exactly when that conversation [took place]. Kyle and I haven’t talked about it, but the context of that was Brock got hurt in the NFC Championship Game, as everyone knows, [against] Philly, and his elbow was really not in a good spot. And I think, to look back now, unbelievably, almost a miraculous recovery. He beat the timeline and all that.”
Of course, the 49ers weren’t always certain how Purdy’s recovery would go. While they hoped for the best, they also needed to prepare for the worst.
“So when it first happened, we’re really searching, like, ‘What are we going to do at quarterback? We don’t know if we’re going to have Brock back,'” Lynch continued. “Trey [Lance] had been hurt as well. He kind of [sustained] a vicious ankle injury, and that didn’t look really good. So we had to look at all our options.
“And I think Kyle and Brock really have honest conversations. At some point, he said, ‘Look, I guess the one way you’re not a starter if you’re healthy is if we go get someone like Brady.’ And I presume that’s what happened, but anytime you mention something like that, it’s obviously going to make quite a story.”
Lynch emphasized that the 49ers didn’t lack confidence in Purdy. There was just a lot of uncertainty surrounding his recovery from a significant surgery to repair the damage to his throwing arm and the quarterback’s readiness for Week 1.
“But it wasn’t us saying to Brock, ‘Hey, we’re bringing in Brady. If not, maybe you’re the starter,'” Lynch clarified. “It was, I think, more of a sign of belief in him that, ‘Hey, you took us [far] in your rookie year. We believe that you’re our guy. As you’re healing up, just understand we may have to go secure some other options.’
“I think then we started tracking his progress, and he was beating every timeline throughout that, as a credit to his healing ability, the genes that he was blessed with. But probably more importantly, the work ethic and the vigor with which he attacked his rehab allowed him to beat all the timelines and be ready right when our season started.”
