Maybe Tom Brady To The San Francisco 49ers Isn’t Such A Bad Idea After All

The San Francisco 49ers are going home.

Following a 31-7 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game, the 49ers will end another deep postseason run with a bitter taste in their mouths for the third time in the past four seasons.

Since this team’s resurgence under the direction of head coach Kyle Shanahan in 2019, San Francisco has come close to winning a Super Bowl — only to come up short all three times.

The 49ers came within an Emmanuel Sanders touchdown of winning Super Bowl LIV in 2019, blew a fourth quarter lead in the NFC Championship Game last season and lost another opportunity in this game once rookie season Brock Purdy exited the game with an elbow injury that almost completely eliminated his ability to throw.

And since the 49ers will come up short again, maybe it’s time to finally consider adding the hometown kid, Tom Brady.

As crazy as it may sound, it really doesn’t sound all that crazy when putting it into perspective. Both sides need each other more than ever entering the 2023 season.

San Francisco will enter the 2023 offseason with questions at quarterback. Prior to this game, Purdy was undefeated as a starting quarterback and looked better than Jimmy Garoppolo did running this offense. However, it’s worth noting he did face a favorable schedule, especially one that saw him play an absurd amount of home games — six home games and just two away appearances prior to San Francisco’s loss to Philadelphia.

While Purdy is probably the best option to run San Francisco’s offense among their three starting quarterbacks from this season — Garoppolo and Trey Lance — there’s a big question as to whether or not he’s good enough to lead the Niners to a Super Bowl win.

When it comes to Brady, there is no question.

The 45-year-old quarterback may not be the quarterback he was just a few years prior when the 49ers entertained the idea of adding Brady — only to pass on the option in favor of Garoppolo — but he’s still one of the top six or seven quarterbacks in the league.

Brady is coming off of a season in which he just broke the single-season record for completions and pass attempts while willing an extremely-flawed Buccaneers squad to the postseason.

You don’t think he could will a team surrounded by all-star talents in Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle and Deebo Samuel to a Super Bowl victory as a final sendoff?

The 49ers previously passed on the idea of adding Brady during the 2020 offseason during his first foray as a free agent. We all know the story — Brady ended up signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and led them to a Super Bowl victory over a Kansas City Chiefs squad that the Niners failed to beat the season prior.

Seth Wickersham detailed why San Francisco passed on Brady three years prior in his book, “It’s Better to be Feared.”

Via Fox Sports:

“Almost as fast as the 49ers’ interest in Brady rose, it died,” Wickersham wrote. “The coaches liked Brady’s film — but didn’t love it. He was better than Garoppolo, they thought, but not that much better — not so much that it was worth trading away a locker-room leader, not to mention one who was nearly 15 years younger and coming off a Super Bowl appearance. A few days before free agency began, the 49ers decided to stick with their guy.”

The Niners wouldn’t really pass on Brady a third time — they passed on him during the 2000 NFL Draft for Giovanni Carmazzi — would they?

Both sides need each other more than ever. The Niners desperately need a proper franchise quarterback to get them over the hump. Brady desperately needs a proper supporting cast that can mask his current flaws — which just so happens to be his fear of getting hit as he nears the age of 46.

It also doesn’t help that Brady’s current best options — the Buccaneers, Las Vegas Raiders and Tennessee Titans — won’t be Super Bowl contenders even with the seven-time Super Bowl champion on their rosters.

Here’s what San Francisco’s offense can look like next season: a stout running game paced by McCaffrey, an offensive line that keeps Brady upright, dink-and-dunk passes to Kittle and quick passes to Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk.

We didn’t even mention how the Niners’ defensive unit is the best in the league, allowing just 16.3 points per game this season, while leading the NFL in interceptions forced and total yardage allowed.

The move isn’t a crazy one. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network previously mentioned the Niners as one of three teams — outside of the Bucs — that could show interest in Brady as a free agent.

Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated actually mentioned during an interview with Colin Cowherd on “The Herd” how the door is “cracked open” for Brady to join the Niners.

“The Niners sort of left that door cracked open [unless] Purdy throws for like 350 yards this week and 350 yards in the Super Bowl… So do I think there’s a great chance of Brady landing in San Francisco? No. Do I think under certain circumstances that door be open? Sure,” said Breer.

Breer proposes a scenario where the Niners keep both Purdy and Lance — which would preserve their franchise quarterback options for the future — while adding Brady.

“And I think the advantage that the Niners have right now is they have Purdy on such a cheap contract, and they have Trey Lance on such an affordable contract that there’s a way logistically for them to keep everybody in house and bring in Brady if they want to,” said Breer. “I think like you could see a scenario where Brady could be in the mix a month, a couple of months from now… I think could boil down to how the next couple of weeks play out.

Brady wants to win one more Super Bowl before he rides off into the sunset. Meanwhile, the Niners want to win just one after coming up inches short over the past few years.

We already know it’s been Brady’s dream to play for his hometown team. Now is the perfect (and last) time to do it.

The ball is in your court, San Francisco.