Tom Curran of NBC Sports Boston posted an interesting column today, continuing down the road he started on Tuesday when he mentioned the San Francisco 49ers as potential suitors for quarterback Tom Brady. The column was interesting because the New England Patriots insider first admits his comments may have been premature and had an unintended effect, but then goes on to try to build a case to defend them.
Curran noted that his comments on SiriusXM radio were said in a "half-joking" manner, and initially based off of chatter by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk and Deion Sanders of NFL Network. When others ran with those comments and built upon them, Curran felt he had made a mistake.
"Nice work, dummy," Curran said he told himself. "You dropped a match into a pile of dried leaves. Start stomping on the flames."
He doesn't, though. Instead, the reporter takes the column for a turn and tries to build a case for the fire that he helped spark. In doing so, he notes that he believes Brady would love playing for the 49ers. He drops another belief, per his sources, too.
"First, Brady would love to play there," Curran wrote. "Second, as much as Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan likes Garoppolo, I've been told by multiple sources that he's got some reservations about Garoppolo's ceiling and overall decision making."
RELATED Patriots insider Tom Curran clarifies his comments about Tom Brady, 49ers
Curran goes on to note that the 49ers built in an escape hatch from Garoppolo contract, via an out which must be exercised by April 1, should they choose to do so, and seemingly uses that to back up the report of Shanahan's reservations.
Curran asks: "Why is the option to move on from Garoppolo with minimal penalty even there? Just in case? In case of what?"
A little research would have revealed that those types of outs within chief negotiator Paraag Marathe's contracts are not uncommon. They aren't in every contract, but they are in enough of the bigger deals to make sure the team doesn't fall into salary ruin should something go wrong.
There is an out in linebacker Kwon Alexander's contract this year, too. The 49ers are not expected to utilize it. Pass rusher Dee Ford and kicker Robbie Gould each have one after the 2020 season.
Then Curran goes on to wonder if the 49ers would do Bill Belichick "a solid" as the Patriots coach did when sending Garoppolo to San Francisco in exchange for a second-round pick. He even, once again, notes the possibility of the 49ers cutting their quarterback. Even in a hypothetical Brady-to-49ers world, that seems highly unlikely for a team lacking a Day 2 draft pick and in a world where good NFL-caliber quarterbacks are tough to come by.
Curran also uses Jeff Darlington of ESPN saying that eight teams are in the mix to sign Brady to try to push the narrative.
"The 49ers are among the eight," Curran writes.
The problem is that, unless Carran has heard something from San Francisco, Darlington doesn't actually mention the 49ers among those eight teams. He doesn't mention any of the eight teams. In fact, one NBC Sports Boston report did name San Francisco as being one of those possibilities, but only because of Curran's report.
"Turns out, it's real," Curran somehow concludes. "Who knew?"
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