Tom Brady-Jimmy Garoppolo rumors based on speculation, not 49ers' interest

There have been a lot of opinions and speculation.

There have been no hints of genuine interest coming from Santa Clara.

The only thing linking the 49ers to free-agent-to-be Tom Brady is a game of connect-the-dots. There has not been anything reported up to this point that suggests there is a legitimate chance Brady’s next place of employment will be back in the Bay Area.

Tom E. Curran of NBC Sports Boston raised more than a few eyebrows Tuesday when he linked Brady to the 49ers during an appearance on Sirius XM’s Mad Dog Radio. Curran said he believes the Tennessee Titans have joined the New England Patriots as equal favorites to sign Brady.

But Curran did not rule out the possibility the 49ers could get involved. Curran believes Brady would love to play for the 49ers. He also stated coach Kyle Shanahan’s faith in Garoppolo is not “over the moon.”

While Garoppolo made his share of mistakes in his first full season as a starter, Shanahan said last week at the NFL Scouting Combine that he saw Garoppolo continue to make strides as the season progressed and as he got further removed from the torn ACL suffered in the 2018 season.

“I thought there was as much pressure on him at the beginning of the year as anyone I’ve been around,” Shanahan said. “And he just took it, handled it all year and got better throughout the year. I was very impressed by him.”

Shanahan was asked directly about whether he has any interest in Brady, who will be free to talk with other teams when the open-negotiating window opens on March 16. Shanahan declined to go down that road.

“He's on another team’s roster,” Shanahan said of Brady. “I cannot talk about anybody until (the beginning of the new league year).”

General manager John Lynch did not leave much wiggle room when he answered a question about Garoppolo’s future with the 49ers.

“We’re extremely proud of Jimmy and committed to Jimmy moving forward,” Lynch said. “He’s our guy.”

Financially, the 49ers are not committed to keeping Garoppolo. In fact, if they were to trade or release him, it would save the club $22.4 million in cap space for the 2020 season. That money -- and then some -- would likely go right back into the quarterback position.

As for moving Garoppolo, Bill Belichick surely would consider it a great tradeoff to replace Brady with Garoppolo, which seemed to be the Patriots’ plan -- until it wasn’t.

But there are no indications the 49ers are anywhere near being ready to move on from Garoppolo as their franchise quarterback now or in the foreseeable future. Garoppolo is 28. He could be the 49ers’ starter for the next decade.

Brady will turn 43 this August. He has been with the same organization in, essentially, the same offense for 20 seasons.

Does the idea of competing for Brady’s services warrant a discussion among the 49ers’ decision-makers? Sure. After all, we are talking about Tom Brady. Everything must be considered. Brady is likely to go down as the best quarterback in football history.

But one question leads to another and another.

How much time would it take for Brady to adapt to Shanahan’s system? (Because Shanahan is certainly not going to allow Brady to bring his offense with him.)

When taking into account Brady’s learning curve, age and inevitable decline, is he even better at this stage than an ascending Garoppolo? That is debatable.

[RELATED: Tom Brady-Jimmy Garoppolo swap not out of the question]

Brady completed 60.8 percent of his pass attempts for 4,057 yards for a 6.6-yard average per attempt with 24 touchdowns and eight interceptions. His passer rating was 88.0.

Garoppolo completed 69.1 percent of his throws for 3,978 yards with an 8.4 average with 27 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. His passer rating was 102.0.

Of course, this would not even be a discussion if Garoppolo had produced more first downs and points in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LIV.

But if we’re really going to judge a quarterback by his last game, Garoppolo’s Super Bowl does not look so bad when held up against Brady’s showing in New England’s season-ending loss to Tennessee in the first round of the playoffs.