San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan have admitted that they discussed the possibility of bringing in Tom Brady. They had to at least have the conversation. It's not every day that one of the greatest to ever play the game becomes available.
In the end, the Niners' decision-makers figured a move from Jimmy Garoppolo to a 42-year-old quarterback at the end of his career, no matter the accomplishments, didn't make long-term sense for the organization.
Lynch joined 95.7 The Game on Thursday and shared that he and Shanahan realized early on that Brady might have an interest in returning to the team he cheered for as a kid.
"Long before anybody called up and said, 'Hey, he'd be interested,'" Lynch said on the Joe, Lo and Dibs show, "we kind of said, 'Hey, OK, this is really weird and odd, number one, that arguably one of the greatest players of all-time becomes free.' And then the fact that there's a connection. Kyle and I looked at each other and just said, 'Hey, is this something we should be looking at?'"
Lynch and Shanahan proceeded to watch film of Brady for about two days to determine if the move was something they should consider pursuing. That included looking at the film of Garoppolo during his time within Shanahan's offense.
"And the cool things is," Lynch continued, "kind of at the same time, we both looked at each other and said, 'You know what? We've got what we believe to be the long-term answer in our building right now.' We felt like it was our duty to take a quick look at Tom, and this was nothing to disparage him, but that's not going to be a long-term answer.
"We figured we did what we think was the responsible thing to do. We took a good look, but the answer is right here in our building. And I think the coolest thing for us is we come out of that more convicted in who Jimmy Garoppolo is, and what he means to this team, than ever before."
Lynch's words mirror what Shanahan said this week during an interview with The Athletic.
"Once we realized and heard this could be realistic, this isn't just talk, we looked into it all," Shanahan said, "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."
In the end, looking into the possibility of adding Brady reaffirmed the 49ers that they already have their long-term answer.
You can listen to the entire conversation with Lynch below.