Could we really see Tom Brady trotting out onto the field at Levi’s Stadium next fall in a 49ers uniform?
Conventional wisdom would point to plenty of reasons why it wouldn’t, but that hasn’t stopped pundits from across the NFL media circles to speculate as to how it could happen.
NBC Sports Boston’s Tom Curran, a longtime New England Patriots Insider, joined Sirius XM’s Mad Dog Radio and said that while he believes New England and Tennessee are the two most likely destinations for the free-agent quarterback, the Niners certainly are in the mix.
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“It’s either gonna be New England or Tennessee, with the 49ers closing hard on the outside,” Curran told Adam Schein. “What’s interesting about that is, the Patriots sent Jimmy Garoppolo out there for such short collateral, that could Belichick say ‘hey, why don’t you just sign this guy when he comes available for two years, I’ll take Jimmy back, he’ll get you the Super Bowl that you probably coulda had this year if you had Brady, and we’ll start fresh.’ “
Curran also referenced the fact that San Francisco can get out from under incumbent QB Jimmy Garoppolo's nine-figure contract before next season, which would count for just $4.2 million against next year’s salary cap per Spotrac.
He called the deal the “best-case scenario” for all sides, despite that scenario for the 49ers being a 42-year-old quarterback whose best years certainly are behind him, while at the same time shipping out a 28-year-old signal-caller who just led his team to a Super Bowl.
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There’s no doubt that Garoppolo folded in the closing minutes of that early February classic in South Florida, but one game shouldn’t be the reason to move on from a franchise-caliber QB in favor of a guy who at most could give you a season or two of slightly above-average production.
It really seems like a slim-to-none chance that Brady could actually come to the Bay, but that won’t stop the social media fodder.