The San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback room was a bit of a mess at the end of last season. With both Jimmy Garoppolo and Trey Lance going down with injuries, San Francisco turned to the Mr. Irrelevant in the 2022 NFL Draft, Brock Purdy, to get them through the end of the regular season and the postseason. And then, Purdy got injured, suffering an elbow injury in the NFC Championship Game that basically doomed the Niners.
Purdy got replaced in the NFC title game against the Philadelphia Eagles by Josh Johnson, who also got hurt in the game. Things ended with Purdy stepping in and basically doing as little as possible, which played a major role in a 31-7 Eagles win. But there’s a fun question in this: What the heck would the Niners have done if they somehow made it past Philly and got to the Super Bowl?
Well, Kyle Shanahan answered that question on Thursday afternoon and said the team would have signed Philip Rivers as a free agent and hoped for the best as he made his debut for the team in the biggest game of the year.
Kyle Shanahan confirmed today that had the 49ers won the NFCCG, he probably would have signed Philip Rivers out of retirement to play the Super Bowl. Would have been amazing pic.twitter.com/Wl2qZawdbA
— Ben Volin (@BenVolin) August 10, 2023
Rivers, of course, was only available because he retired after the 2020 NFL season came to an end, so the last pass he threw in a live game came on Jan. 9, 2021. It would have been one of the all-time insane things to happen in the history of sports, but in the end, it didn’t come to fruition.