Why 49ers Publicly Denying Brady Interest is Unnecessary

The San Francisco 49ers brass has come under a bit of scrutiny for not nipping the Tom Brady rumors in the bud.

The San Francisco 49ers brass has come under a bit of scrutiny for not nipping the Tom Brady rumors in the bud. That head coach Kyle Shanahan and/or general manager John Lynch should publicly defend Jimmy Garoppolo. 

However, these two have already been outspoken about their commitment and support of Garoppolo. 

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

Call me crazy, but that sounded like more than enough support of their franchise quarterback. It makes zero sense to echo this again a week later, especially based on a false rumor. The 49ers are not going to waste their time dispelling something that carries zero truth to it. 

It would look silly of them to address this because the idea of Brady going to the Niners was just spit-balling. It was essentially just "fan talk", meaning a lot of "what if" questions were posed. This happens every year as free agency draws closer. It is fun to talk about and envision certain players going to certain teams. 

The only reason this blew up is because it is Tom Brady, the biggest name to hit free agency since Peyton Manning. If the 49ers were to actually publicly deny this, then that would mean there is something real. 

Why give credence to something that isn't legitimate in the first place?

That is why the 49ers brass hasn't come out and said anything because they know it is hogwash. At 43-years old, the 49ers are absolutely not in the market for Brady or any other quarterback in free agency. This "rumor" was just pure fabrication because it was nothing more than hypothetical talk. 

The only reason this gained traction is because critics are using Garoppolo's poor fourth-quarter performance in the Super Bowl against him. As I have stated multiple times in previous articles, this a pure example of recency bias. It's just something that he is going to have to deal with until the start of the 2020 season.

“Yeah, I think Jimmy deserves a ton of credit for what he did this year." Said Shanahan at the NFL scouting combine last week. " I think people talk a little bit about how he was coming off an ACL, but I also think that people don’t realize that was his first year playing quarterback in this league. I think he got three games in New England and he got five games with us. This was his first time going through a full season. 

"He had less games than [Cleveland Browns QB] Baker Mayfield going into his second year. To do that, with the pressure of, to me, everyone thinking you’ve already arrived and coming off an ACL, I thought there was much pressure on him at the beginning of the year as anyone I’ve been around. He just took it, handled it all year and got better throughout the year. I was very impressed with him.”