Had the 49ers beaten the Eagles in the NFC championship game, there’s a good chance Philip Rivers would have been under center for the team during the Super Bowl. Kyle Shanahan confirmed as much today, saying the organization planned to sign the retired quarterback had they won that game (via Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle).
Despite having not seen the field since the 2020 campaign, the 41-year-old quarterback was in the team’s contingency plan towards the end of the postseason. With Jimmy Garoppolo and Trey Lance out of the picture, the 49ers rolled into the NFC championship game with Josh Johnson as the top backup to Brock Purdy. Both Purdy and Johnson were injured in that contest, and that would have forced the team into figuring out a fifth option at the position.
“(Rivers) was prepared to (play),” said Shanahan. “It’s stuff we talked about through the whole year. We would have seen how that was for the Super Bowl. That was the plan for most of the year.”
As Branch notes, Ben Roethlisberger admitted that the 49ers had reached out to him about joining the team, but the quarterback wanted to stay retired. Rivers, however, sounds like he was willing to return to the field for a chance at a Super Bowl ring.
When we last saw the long-time Chargers QB, he was manning the position for the Colts, guiding the team to an 11-5 record while tossing 24 touchdowns vs. 11 interceptions. Since calling it a career following that 2020 campaign, Rivers has served as a high school football coach in Fairhope, Alabama.
More notes out of San Francisco…
- 49ers wideout and return man Ray-Ray McCloud broke his wrist at practice earlier this week, per Matt Barrows of The Athletic (on Twitter). The 26-year-old will undergo surgery and will likely miss the first two months of the season. McCloud joined the 49ers last year, and he finished the season averaging 23 yards per kick return and 10.8 yards per punt return. He also added 14 receptions and a touchdown on offense. As Barrows notes, Ronnie Bell, Willie Snead, and D’Shawn Jamison will be competing to take over the ST snaps with McCloud sidelined.
- Trent Williams is entering his 13th NFL season, including his fourth with the 49ers. While 2023 will mark the lineman’s age-35 campaign, Williams doesn’t have any thoughts of hanging up his cleats. “No I don’t. Because I still feel the same,” Williams told ESPN’s Dan Graziano. “Every year, I come back and I’m literally on the edge of my seat until that first practice, because I just don’t know. I can train as hard as I want and feel good, but I don’t know. I’ve seen a lot of guys fall off, hit that wall, and I just don’t know when it’s coming. So I kind of go in scared in a sense, and as soon as I get out and move around I feel like, ‘All right. This year I’m good. I haven’t started slowing down yet.’ At the end of the day, I’m 35. I understand I don’t have another 10 years. But what’s the point of thinking about when it’s going to stop? It doesn’t help. I think once it’s time, it’s time, and you will know. But for me, just because I’m 35, I don’t think I should be thinking about retiring.”
- Shanahan told reporters that the 49ers had interest in Sam Darnold during the early stages of their 2018 draft evaluation (via ESPN’s Nick Wagoner and Jeremy Fowler). The organization ended up trading for Garoppolo during the 2017 campaign, and Darnold went third-overall to the Jets in the following year’s draft. The 49ers were eager to bring the now-veteran QB on board this offseason, and the organization is convinced that Darnold was previously “harmed more by his circumstances than his ability.” Darnold was also eager to join an organization that could maximize his skills. “Being in a really good organization was a priority for me,” Darnold told reporters. “Being with really good coaches and really good personnel as well. Those were kind of the top things.”
- The 49ers announced a number of front office changes, including the promotion of Jeff Diamond to Senior Manager, Salary Cap and Hayden Frey and Crowley Hanlon to area scouts. The organization also officially announced the addition of Frank Gore to the front office, with the former running back earning the title of Football Personnel Advisor.
That would have been very interesting to see; Rivers, beyond being 41, hasn’t played in over a year and certainly not with San Fran. He’s enough of a veteran to make it work, if anybody could, but it’s hard to imagine that going completely smoothly for that reason.You have to wonder why, if that was a concern as Shanahan admits, the team wouldn’t have signed him BEFORE the NFC championship game. Was it so inconceivable to Shanahan that Purdy would get hurt?
I know that Shanahan would have protected Rivers incredibly in terms of not throwing much and utilizing plays familiar to him, but Rivers would still need time to get used to playing again, let alone with an entirely new team. It’s more than timing or placement on throws; cadences, protections, signals-all of these things are elements that even the most protected quarterback needs. Just as importantly, the 9ers players would have needed to get used to Rivers. Two or three weeks of intense practice wouldn’t eliminate that need. Ifthe 9ers considered Rivers at all, they really should have signed him before the NFC Championship to give him time to ease into their roster and scheme.
Shanahan seems pretty overconfident in his coaching abilities if he thinks that he can take any quarterback-even one as great as Philip Rivers-and simply plug him in for the Super Bowl against a ferocious Philadelphia defense without any prior game experience together. It’s always seemed that Shanahan has considered many offensive positions as interchangeable within his scheme, but this is a bit much in my mind given the circumstances.
To clarify, I meant to write “Josh Johnson” instead of “Brock Purdy” at the end of the first paragraph. Obviously Johnson started, but it’s kind of irresponsible to use a quarterback who is already too injured to be your starter to be your only backup as well. We, also obviously, saw the result of that.
You didn’t write Brock Purdy in the first paragraph and Josh Johnson never started a game for the niners
Yeah, I wrote “Purdy” instead, my mistake. And Josh Johnson definitely played for San Francisco in the NFC Championship until he was injured.
Johnson played but he never started a game for the niners
Either way, I fumbled that post. I should have corrected that before I posted. I hate the edit button here.
My main point was supposed to be that Shanahan should have signed Rivers if he were interested. Another QB, in addition to Johnson would have been good when it became apparent that his third stringer was going to be his starter for the remainder of the year. It just seemed like Shanahan figured that he could plug just anybody in to his system and be fine, no matter their experience or skill. Purdy played very well, but you have to bet that insurance may be necessary later on in that situation.
You also mentioned Shanahan being overconfident thinking he could plug in Rivers versus that Eagles defense…
It would have been facing against the AFC Champions in the Super Bowl.
Yeah, bad post. Very tired. I apologize. I do think that he should have signed Rivers sooner if he was considering him, but I messed that one up good.
I’m thinking the ‘Rivers’ contingency plan was a great option. If they beat the Eagles and hit the SB who know Andy and the Chiefs better than Phillip? With a record of 14 wins against 15 loses he’d be a decent wager to come out on top.
Besides I’d of liked to see Phillip get a shot at a ‘ring’!
Why wouldn’t he have signed Rivers to back up knowing that you’re one snap away from Josh Johnson? At worst, Rivers could have been QB3 and you have the option to go to him if Johnson is ineffective. Idk it doesn’t make much sense to me
You’ll be pleased to know that had the Jets reached the SB they would have been asking Joe Namath to start behind center.
What
This what I tried and failed to say above. I don’t dislike Johnson in the slightest, and he deserves props for being able to play so long in the league. If they were considering Rivers, he should have been signed. Somebody else should have been signed anyway, considering the fact that San Fran’s starter at that point was a relative unknown commodity at the time.
Johnson is a known commodity. He’s been a practice squad QB for his whole career. I agree that SF should have just signed Rivers instead of going into the championship game with Johnson as a backup. I don’t think anyone will argue that
Agreed.
That’s why I somewhat questioned the legitimacy of the story. Why wouldn’t you want depth at QB going into the championship game? It almost feels like Kyle is just trying to legitimize Rivers efforts to make a comeback. It actually makes shanahan look so bad for not signing Rivers.
Seems REALLY odd to me that teams would be allowed to sign somebody that late in the (post)season… I would have thought that your roster at the beginning of postseason play was what you had to work with.
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Laughable, so instead of a super bowl prepared rivers he has josh Johnson in the championship game ????? Outlandish.
Can anyone explain to me why Josh Johnson is even still in the league? Why wouldn’t you grab someone like Manziel or someone who might be grateful for a second chance instead of somebody who wasn’t that good 15 years ago? No wonder Kaperstink thinks he can still play, you’ve got Josh Johnson, Colt McCoy, etc standing around waiting and holding a clipboard waiting for their 10th or 12th shot to prove they’re an NFL QB
Johnny Manziel wasn’t grateful for his first opportunity. Aside from Josh Rosen, Manziel is the last person I would give an opportunity to.
No, he wasn’t. But he’s matured and should get another shot. The talent was there, but the brains weren’t. You can’t tell me he wouldn’t be better than Trevor Simeon, Paxton Lynch, Josh Rosen, or any combo of ex-starters still hanging around the NFL fringes.
Did you see the Netflix documentary??? He said he watched “Zero” film in his career.
Johnny’s sitting there drinking a beer while being interviewed. Whatever you think Johnny Manziel is, he isn’t. Go watch the doc and come back to me. He’s a clown and he doesn’t deserve anything. If he wants to prove himself, he can go play in the cfl xfl or usfl.
Never watched the documentary. The problem with interviews that aren’t in real time is that can be edited to slant the conversation whichever way the interviewer wants it to go.
So drinking a beer makes him a clown? Why is that?
He had the tools, he just didn’t want it bad enough. Given a second chance I believe he would be a changed man. Why go to the CFL and get beat all to hell when he’s probably still being paid by the Browns?
Young men never make mistakes, right? Henry Riggs, Joe Mixon, Plaxico Burgess, to name a few.
Stop judging people you don’t know and give people a chance to redeem themselves.
Thank goodness you’re not the GM of my team. I’m judging him because the NFL is a QB league. If he wanted a second chance bad enough (as you said) he would have gotten one. Just do the math. If you can’t figure out why Manziel isn’t in the league anymore, I don’t know what else to tell you.
PS – How dare you compare Henry Ruggs to any of these guys. Ruggs killed a woman and her dog. A B C D E F that guy. 3-10 year sentence for taking a human life and her companion driving 150 mph drunk is not enough.sorry not sorry
Yes, Ruggs deliberately set out to kill a woman. It’s not a mistake it was a deliberate act. Much like Teddy Kennedy and Mary Jo. Teddy went to jail for how long?
Take your holier than thou judgement of everyone and stick it. Don’t judge, lest ye be judged to paraphrase the Bible.
Proverbs 13:20. ✌️
Guys like Johnson and McCoy aren’t looking for a starting gig. Would they like to start? I’m 100% sure they would. But they ALL are aware they are 3rd string guys, with no purpose besides being a last resort option for their respective teams.
Being last resort options, that know the offense and terminology..
That’s the biggest key to why they continue to keep getting jobs.