Kyle Shanahan Confirms Bold QB Contingency Plan Had 49ers Advanced to Super Bowl LVII

As San Francisco’s quarterback injuries mounted, the team was prepared to think outside the box had it won the NFC Championship Game.

By the time the 49ers advanced to last season’s NFC championship game, their quarterback depth chart had already taken some serious damage. Jimmy Garoppolo and Trey Lance had already been lost for the season, but the offense maintained a high level of performance with rookie Brock Purdy at the helm.

When Purdy suffered a serious elbow injury in the game’s first quarter, though, and backup Josh Johnson was removed after being diagnosed with a concussion, the burden proved too much to overcome. Had the team somehow managed to sneak past the Eagles, though, and into Super Bowl LVII, San Francisco had a surprising solution for how to approach the big game.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan confirmed to reporters on Thursday that the team would have brought in retired quarterback Philip Rivers to fill in. Rivers, 41, last appeared in an NFL game in 2020.

“He was prepared to,” Shanahan said. “Now that’s stuff we talked about throughout the whole year. We would’ve had to have seen how that was for the Super Bowl, but that was the plan most of the year.”

Here’s Kyle Shanahan talking today about how he was in discussions all of last season with Philip Rivers — in case of a worst case scenario situation.

Rivers was prepared for the call if he was needed.
pic.twitter.com/NtaswlVWJN https://t.co/OTge71VKGC

— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) August 10, 2023

Philadelphia ended up winning, 31–7, robbing Rivers the chance to appear in his first Super Bowl and Shanahan the opportunity to make one of the boldest moves in football history on the biggest stage.