Do San Francisco 49ers regret passing on Tom Brady? Only 4 QBs had winning seasons as SF starter since 2000
Do the San Francisco 49ers regret not signing Tom Brady?
The question is simple, and so is the answer: like most NFL teams that were in on Tom Brady, the San Francisco 49ers of course regret not making a bigger push for Tom Brady. The San Francisco 49ers would have likely been regretting passing on QB Tom Brady shortly after he signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Jimmy Garoppolo once again got injured. Tom Brady went to Tampa Bay and took a mediocre team to raise a Lombardi Trophy in his first year.
The 49ers have a contender-caliber roster that lacks the capable QB to finish the job. There's even some irony in the situation, as San Francisco acquired Jimmy G when he was Tom Brady's backup in New England just to nearly replace him with...Tom Brady. I say "almost" because the 49ers didn't make a final push for Brady and hedged their bets on Garoppolo. Where has that landed them? They went 6-10 and received the #12 pick, which they traded for the third overall pick and drafted QB Trey Lance. San Francisco doesn't have a great track record with their QBs in the last two decades.
Since 2000, three starters out of nine in that span have a winning record with the 49ers. Shaun Hill went 10-6 from 2007 to 2009, but has never played more than 9 games in a single season. Alex Smith went 38-36 from 2005 to 2012 with just one winning season. Jimmy Garoppolo is currently 28-8 since 2017 with one winning season (his only full season).
Take a look at their roster and you'll see that this team can be a player in the playoffs. QB Trey Lance is still an unknown in the NFL and the 49ers could still be several years away from the playoffs with him as the starter in their division.
Both Tom Brady and the 49ers did express mutual interest when he was a free-agent but the 49ers let him walk and win a Super Bowl elsewhere. There are flaws with the 49ers and Tom Brady could have had a major impact on the team's future. He wouldn't have won a Super Bowl in 2020 with so many injuries, but he could have taken them there in his second or third year. Plus, there would have been much fewer injuries with Brady under center. The RBs wouldn't have been running so hard and could have been apart of a balanced offense where they could have returned to a top unit. Tom Brady would have taken care of the WRs and Deebo Samuel wouldn't have suffered his injury as a RB. Instead of having Tom Brady open up your offense, the team went with a QB that limits the offense to work around his flaws.
On HBO's The Shop, Tom Brady threw an "unknown" team under the bus for not signing him.
"One of the teams, they weren't interested at the very end. I was thinking, 'You're sticking with that m*****f*****?"
Most people speculated that Jimmy Garoppolo was that "guy". For the San Francisco 49ers to not regret thinking Tom Brady was on his way out of the NFL, Jimmy G had to step up his game. He'll likely be traded either this year or next and won't last as a starter. If Trey Lance isn't worth the top-three pick, Tom Brady will haunt them for many years.
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