Getty Kyle Shanahan before the January 14, 2023 playoff game in Santa Clara.
Kyle Shanahan did more than address the current state of the San Francisco 49ers quarterback room during his media session at the NFL Owner’s Meeting on Tuesday, March 28 in Arizona. He ended up fielding questions about one $32 million talent who’s been linked to the 49ers this offseason: Lamar Jackson.
The Baltimore Ravens quarterback is currently franchise tagged by the team that drafted him in 2018. He has a base salary of $32,416,000 for 2023 according to Spotrac. Jackson recently stirred up significant interest by revealing on his social media pages on Monday, March 27 that he had requested a trade from the Ravens back on March 2.
Shanahan got asked about Jackson and if the 49ers have had any interest in making a run at the 2019 NFL Most Valuable Player. Shanahan, though, opted to speak more about Jackson’s talent — with the attempt to avoid being fined for speaking publicly about another player under contract with another team.
“Everyone knows Lamar’s skill set,” Shanahan responded (h/t 49ers Webzone). “Lamar’s a stud. I’m sure they’ll work it out there. But Lamar’s a great player.”
The reporter who asked still pressed Shanahan if there was any interest from the 49ers for the two-time Pro Bowl quarterback.
“We’ve got three quarterbacks we’re pretty good with right now,” Shanahan responded, “and we’re pretty set with how we’ve built our roster salary cap-wise.”
Shanahan Takes his Turn Addressing Brock Purdy & his Health
On Monday, general manager John Lynch was the 49ers representative who updated the health of Brock Purdy. Shanahan then took his turn.
But Shanahan’s answer was far different from Lynch’s rhetoric.
“I think it would have been pretty easy if Brock was healthy because of the way Brock played last year,” Shanahan said. “He’d be the starter going into it. Trey had that position going into the year. We were real excited about that, and we think he would have had a hell of a year.”
Shanahan continued with not having a specific timeframe on when Purdy can throw again — which is again different from the prediction Lynch had.
“I don’t know if it’ll happen Week 1. I don’t know if it’ll happen training camp. I think there’s a possibility of all of that,” Shanahan said via Lombardi.
Lombardi, though, clarified that Shanahan’s statement doesn’t necessarily mean the head coach and general manager have differing views and aren’t coming off as people not on the same page.
Shanahan Addresses Rest of QB Room
Shanahan continued to dive into the topic of QBs, but this time his own.
He’s very excited about who gets to come back from Purdy to Trey Lance. He’s additionally energized for former top five pick Sam Darnold coming on board via free agency. He says all three have helped create what he called a “very good roster.”
“Our goal is always to see how good we can make the team, and we feel we’re in a very good situation at quarterback right now,” Shanahan noted. “Not just with three guys who are capable of being starters, but we also got three guys that have allowed us to build a very good roster.”