After watching injury after injury devastate the San Francisco 49ers quarterback room this season, several fans on social media are willing to see what adding a veteran like Tom Brady might do to improve the team's outlook. If you don't count the four games he was suspended in 2016, Brady has started every game in all but one season since 2002.
Meanwhile, Kyle Shanahan has started six different quarterbacks since becoming the 49ers' head coach in 2017. Unfortunately, he can't seem to keep his signal callers healthy.
Of course, there is also a very vocal group of fans against a potential Brady signing. Their reasoning is sound. Brady will be 46 years old at the start of the 2023 season. In hindsight, the 49ers probably should have signed Brady in 2020, when they last had an opportunity. The future Hall of Fame quarterback would have loved to play for his hometown team. Instead, San Francisco passed on Brady for Jimmy Garoppolo, and Brady went on to win a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
At the time, the decision made sense. Brady was coming off an average season by Brady's standards. Garoppolo is 14 years younger and was coming off a Super Bowl appearance.
Three years later, many wonder if Brady can carry a team like he once could. Of course, many had the same concern in 2020.
The 49ers have a quarterback conundrum on their hards. Brock Purdy is expected to be sidelined for six months as he recovers from a tear of the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his throwing elbow. That means missing the 49ers' entire offseason program, which would have been valuable for the young quarterback as he entered his second NFL season. With Jimmy Garoppolo headed to free agency, many believe Shanahan will seek to add a veteran passer.
One respected NFL analyst doesn't think that veteran should be Brady.
"It's a young man's game," Brian Baldinger explained Tuesday morning on 97.7 The Game's The Morning Roast. "And I'm not here to knock Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady if they want to keep playing. Keep playing. But I just don't want to build my team with a 40 or a 46-year-old quarterback. I just don't. I don't care if it's a one-year rental. I want to sustain excellence.
"They got Joe Montana out of Notre Dame in '79. They got Steve Young. Like, they built it the right way with those teams, with a young quarterback. Whether it's Trey Lance or whether it's Brock Purdy or it's somebody else, give me a younger quarterback that I know I'm going to have him for the next five years."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Baldinger below.