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.
During the eagles game they decided and talked this through? but when they added one late as needed, it was josh Johnson. Or were they predicting Purdy was getting hurt ?
One thing to remember is that Shanny likes to bend the truth. Full stop.
What I think he is trying to convey here is that they had a plan if they would have made it to the Super Bowl. Josh Johnson was added during the regular season after Jimmy G was injured. So they had Purdy backed up by Josh Johnson. They signed a guy named Jacob Eason to the practice squad in mid-November, but released him prior to the playoffs.
I think where Shanny is bending the truth is wording it as if they had some great plan to push forward with Philip Rivers, rather than it being a conversation they had in a “what if” scenario. Its better than saying “if we made it to the Super Bowl we were screwed. The best idea I could come up with is grabbing Old Man Rivers off the couch.”
If Goff gets hurt in this years playoffs, the Lions are signing a fella by the name of Tom Brady to play in the playoffs for us. You heard it here first.
I agree. It sounds more like a contingency plan in his head than it does a deal in place. It does make sense from river’s perspective though. I’d come off the couch for a shot at a super bowl ring if I were him. It worked for Eric weddle.
