Somewhere, in an alternative universe, Matthew Stafford is a San Francisco 49er.
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said as much in a recent podcast with Rams head coach Sean McVay and NFL insider Peter Schrager.
On a recent episode of The Ringer’s “Flying Coach” podcast, Shanahan explained just how close the 49ers were to making a move for the former Lions quarterback on the night that he landed in a Rams uniform.
You don’t want to get me started, dude. That was frustrating. I was actually in Cabo, I was watching it all. I had never studied Stafford that hard. I remember looking through it and everyone was telling me it was a possibility. Stafford’s the man, I studied him hard coming out of college, and we always used to play against him, so you know how good he is. But to know he might be available, and then spend two weeks really watching him, Sean? Yeah. He’s better than I had realized. He was the man, and he’s underrated to me. …
I was trying to get involved in it. Someone who had knowledge on the situation — I was talking to (Tom) Condon and everyone to find out when it was happening. I remember on Saturday, I was so stressed out, and finally we talked to someone and it was like 7 at night, and they were like, “No, nothing’s happening at the earliest till tomorrow. So you can finish your night.” So I’m like, “All right, I’m done.” Put my phone down, talk to Mandy, “Let’s go out to dinner, let’s have some drinks.”
A half an hour later, a buddy of mine calls me, he’s like, “I’m just telling you, if you want Stafford, you need to get ahold of him right now.” And I’m like, “What do you mean? We just talked to people, I can sleep on this, we’ll talk to ’em tomorrow.” “I’m just telling you, you need to talk to him right now.” And I knew it, and I turned on my phone, and it was all over. It wasn’t fun.
MORE: What the Lions could have gotten for Matthew Stafford
Coincidentally, Shanahan was in Cabo, Mexico, the same time that Stafford and McVay were, further painting just how painfully close Stafford was to Shanahan; McVay joked that, thankfully, Shanahan was staying in a different hotel than he and Stafford. Shanahan said it would have made for an “awkward” situation.
The 49ers scoured the quarterback market this offseason looking for an upgrade at the position, and some rumors linked them to Aaron Rodgers. That, obviously, didn’t come to pass either.
All’s well that ends well, though: San Francisco would later trade up to No. 3 overall in the 2021 NFL Draft, selecting quarterback Trey Lance as their passer of the future. Jimmy Garoppolo is still on the 49ers’ roster, as well, but the sands might be thinning on his San Francisco tenure.
Still, Shanahan certainly sounds like he wishes he could have booked another hotel. Now, instead of seeing Stafford on his sideline, he’ll be seeing him twice a year.
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