The 49ers started three quarterbacks and played four last season. They ran out of them in the NFC Championship Game, zapping all the intrigue from the matchup early.
But what if. . . .
It already was known the 49ers had talked to retired quarterback Philip Rivers after Jimmy Garoppolo broke his foot in Week 13. Rivers didn’t come out of retirement, but he might have had the 49ers made the Super Bowl.
Rivers played 17 seasons, his last in 2020, but he never played in a Super Bowl.
“He was prepared to,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said Thursday, via Nick Wagoner of ESPN. “Now that’s stuff we talked about throughout the whole year. We would’ve had to have seen how that was for the Super Bowl, but that was the plan most of the year.”
The 49ers lost Trey Lance to a broken right ankle in Week 2, then lost Garoppolo to his left foot injury 11 weeks later. In the NFC Championship Game, Brock Purdy tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow and Josh Johnson went out with a concussion.
Garoppolo said he planned to play in the Super Bowl if the 49ers had advanced, but the team would have needed a backup. Garoppolo finally underwent foot surgery after agreeing to terms with the Raiders this offseason.
“I was doing my thing, trying to get my foot ready,” Garoppolo said after the joint practice with the 49ers on Thursday. “It didn’t work out how I wished it would have.”
In March, Rivers downplayed interest from NFL teams, which included the Dolphins after they lost Tua Tagovailoa and Teddy Bridgewater.
“I heard from a couple of teams, just kind of checking in,” Rivers, now a high school coach in Fairhope, Alabama, told AL.com. “I didn’t contact anyone, and I’m not going anywhere. I think maybe some teams, with some guys going down, may have been just looking for a contingency plan.”
