Kyle Shanahan Weighs In On 49ers’ Interest In Baker Mayfield

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Baker Mayfield throwing a pass against the San Francisco 49ers.

The San Francisco 49ers have a problem at worst and a question mark at best at the quarterback position following the unfortunate announcement that Jimmy Garoppolo broke his foot on the first drive of the team’s Week 13 game against the Miami Dolphins. Though Brock Purdy did his best filling in for Garoppolo in reserve duty, completing almost 68 percent of his passes for 210 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception, could the man forever known as Mr. Irrelevant actually lead the 49ers where they want to be, Super Bowl LVII?

Fans are understandably mixed on that question but on Monday, December 5th, the thought experiment became all the more interesting when Baker Mayfield asked for and was granted his release from the Carolina Panthers to pursue other opportunities, namely in San Francisco, according to Ian Rapoport. Would the 49ers actually have any interest in bringing Mayfield into the fold, even after signing Josh Johnson off of the Denver Broncos practice squad immediately after the Week 13 win? Fortunately, Kyle Shanahan was asked this very question during his Monday media availability session, and his answer provides some interesting insight, as transcribed by 49ers Webzone.

“We look into everything, but that’d surprise me right now,” Shanahan said. “We have to discuss more this afternoon, but I’ve always been a fan of his, but I feel real good about our players, and we’ll look into everything, but I feel pretty good with where we’re at right now.”

Could a surprise be in Shanahan’s future, and if so, will Mayfield actually land in the Bay Area, or will another team, maybe the Los Angeles Rams, steal their thunder as they, too, deal with injuries under center? Fans will find out at 4 pm ET on Tuesday when the waiver period is over.

Josh Johnson brings familiarity to the San Francisco 49ers

While no one could have imagined Mayfield being waived by the Panthers when the 49ers claimed Johnson off of the Broncos’ practice squad, the decision to bring him to San Francisco had less to do with upside than experience playing in Shanahan’s scheme, as he also detailed in his media session.

“Just having him here in 2020 for that last month of the year, we got to see a lot of him just as a player, which we like the player, but more importantly, we really like the guy. I think that’s why he has been around for so long and so many places continue to bring him back because he is a natural leader. Guys like playing with him, guys like playing around him, he has a skill set that can go in and give you a chance to win and a person we really believe in and we feel fortunate to get him back here.”

Entering his fourth tenure with the 49ers, Johnson does have familiarity with Shanahan’s scheme, and after playing for 18 different teams over three different leagues during his professional career, few quarterbacks are as experienced as learning a playbook in a hurry as the former fifth-round pick out of San Diego.

Johnson Has A Leg Up On Mayfield Heading Into Week 14

So if part of the reason why the 49ers signed Johnson was because of his experience in Shanahan’s scheme, does Mayfield’s inexperience in the offense play into his potential fit with the team? Shanahan was asked if it would be harder to add a player in Mayfield’s situation, and he agreed.

“Yeah, it makes a lot harder, but sometimes you don’t have that luxury,” Shanahan said. “We would definitely do that if we felt there was a viable guy out there, but that’s really tough in this situation, so you always want to go for the guy who gives you the best chance to win, and you take in a lot of factors into the deciding that, but having familiarity with what we do allows the guy to pick up on it pretty fast because it’s not like whoever you bring in you’re going to give a ton of reps to. [QB] Trey [Lance] got all of our reps when he was up, and then when he went down, Jimmy got them all, and Brock hasn’t got any first-team reps here. I don’t know if he has this year yet or at least since training camp, so it’ll be the same for Josh when he comes in. He’ll run the scout team and do all that, but he has to sit there and prepare the same way that Brock has been doing it. I know that we got a guy who is familiar with it and capable of doing that.”

As much as fans may like to see Mayfield in a 49ers uniform, the prospect of adding a new quarterback this late in the season is a tough proposition that rarely happened in the NFL. Still, as Shanahan said, sometimes teams don’t have that luxury, and if the 49ers somehow end up with Mayfield on their roster come Sunday, they will do everything in their power to get him up to speed on their game plan should Purdy struggle, or the team suffer a third season-ending injury to their starting quarterback.