Why the Brady-to-49ers speculation makes zero sense

Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders said on Sunday while covering the NFL Scouting Combine that Tom Brady to the San Francisco 49ers "makes sense for everybody." Except, it doesn't.

The marriage makes sense in the short-term for both Brady and the 49ers. Of course, the next couple of years is all Brady is thinking about because he is at the end of his illustrious career.

Sure, as Skip Bayless said last week, Brady landing with the team he cheered while growing up and the team he hoped would draft him in 2000 would be a storybook ending for the quarterback. It doesn't, however, make a whole lot of sense for the 49ers.

Adding Brady doesn't guarantee a Super Bowl any more than having Jimmy Garoppolo at this point. Brady will be 43 years old when the 2020 season kicks off. Garoppolo, 28, has several more years of football left in front of him.

And no, Peter King, the 49ers can't keep both Brady and Garoppolo. They don't have the $50 million or so available needed to retain two high-priced quarterbacks. That won't happen, and adding Brady would mean trading away Garoppolo.

Even if they could keep both quarterbacks, is that what Brady wants? We all know what happened in New England with Brady having to look over his shoulder toward Garoppolo, who was seen by head coach Bill Belichick as the future Hall of Famer's eventual replacement.

Let's say Brady plays another two years. What happens after that? San Francisco will be left back where it was in 2017 — searching for a franchise quarterback. Unless head coach Kyle Shanahan falls in love with a quarterback in this or the next draft, or still has a longing for Kirk Cousins, getting rid of Garoppolo after two-and-a-half seasons doesn't make sense.

Suppose the 49ers liked a quarterback in this draft class. As of right now, the team only has six selections, and would probably love to not have to use one on a quarterback project. Of course, one can argue that trading Garoppolo would add to those draft picks, but there are potentially several options this offseason for quarterback-needy NFL teams.

Brady-to-49ers might be a storybook ending for him, but it could be a future nightmare for San Francisco. It's not like Shanahan and general manager John Lynch are searching for a way to win and are a quarterback away from doing so. They were in the Super Bowl last month and have successfully rebuilt a once-talent-depleted roster.

The media's analysis of Garoppolo seems to be focused on two playoff games and the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. Forgotten are the pretty impressive 2019 regular season, three quarters of Super Bowl LIV, and his five-game win streak in 2017. It's funny how that last one is forgotten since much of the 2018 offseason chatter surrounding the 49ers was because of that.

Garoppolo's 3,978 passing yards in 2019 rank as the fourth-best in franchise history when it comes to a quarterback's single-season total. That's pretty impressive when you consider the quarterbacks who have played for the storied organization.

Al Sacco posted the following comparison between Garoppolo and another NFL quarterback who happens to be pretty good.


And none of that even factors in that the 49ers have already verbally committed to Garoppolo. They did so at the NFL Scouting Combine, and the team's general manager feels his quarterback hasn't even reached his potential yet.

"We're extremely proud of Jimmy and committed to Jimmy moving forward," Lynch said last week. "He's our guy. As I've said, from the day he walked into our building, he made us better, and we continue to feel that's the case. And that's the most exciting think about him, is the room for growth. He's not come close to hitting his ceiling."

So, if Garoppolo, who is 14 years younger than Brady, has his arrow pointed up, why would the 49ers take a chance on a quarterback who is seemingly descending?

Lynch using a word like "committed" and saying "he's our guy," would seemingly shut down any speculation that the 49ers might consider replacing Garoppolo, but it hasn't. Bayless, Sanders, and others like Mike Florio continue to push the narrative without considering its long-term impact.

This isn't a Manning-to-Broncos situation where Denver didn't have another option and couldn't figure out how to identify a quarterback of the future. Lynch and Shanahan are trying to sustain success, not peak for a year or two, and then start over. The Broncos are 27-37 since Peyton Manning rode off into the sunset after winning his second career championship.

The Brady to the Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers, Indianapolis Colts chatter, that's all fine. The speculation linking him to the 49ers is fun for the media, but it's not going to happen.