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49ers players back QB Jimmy Garoppolo amid Tom Brady rumors

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo led his team to the Super Bowl during his first full season as a starting quarterback in 2019. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo led his team to the Super Bowl during his first full season as a starting quarterback in 2019. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

March 5 (UPI) -- San Francisco 49ers players are standing behind quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo as rumors surround the team potentially adding veteran quarterback Tom Brady to the roster this off-season.

Brady has been linked to several other teams, including the Indianapolis Colts, Tennessee Titans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Los Angeles Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders. He spoke with UFC president Dana White Wednesday, with White filming the conversation on Instagram. White was trying to convince Brady to join the Raiders. Brady said he plans to take a vacation with his family before free agency begins March 18.

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The conversation occurred at the same time social media users and sports analysts are hypothesizing about Brady landing in San Francisco. Brady grew up in the Bay Area, attending Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo, Calif.

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49ers running back Jeff Wilson Jr. spoke to Sports Illustrated Tuesday and voiced his support for Garoppolo.

"It's ludicrous," Wilson said of the 49ers acquiring Brady. "[Garoppolo] just took us all the way to the Super Bowl, great season, 14 wins. I mean there's not a lot of quarterbacks that's even in this league that just had a season like that. And then you go from that season taking a team all the way to the Super Bowl, to talks of being traded.

"He's a great quarterback, he's been that way ever since he's been to San Fran. It's just unfortunate that he got hurt the year before and then kind of, you know, threw him back in the wilderness a little bit but he came right back in like he never left and took a team all the way to the Super Bowl, so how can you talk about moving him? Or trading him to another team?"

49ers tight end George Kittle also referenced Garoppolo Wednesday on Instagram. He also liked several photos of Garoppolo with captions reading "our QB" and "QB1" on Twitter.

"Let's run it back 10," Kittle wrote for the caption on his post, referencing Garoppolo's jersey number.

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Garoppolo, 28, has one of the greatest winning percentages of all time during the regular season. The New England Patriots traded Garoppolo to the 49ers in exchange for a second-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft in 2017. Garoppolo missed most of the 2018 season after tearing the ACL in his left knee. He led the 49ers to the top seed in the NFC in 2019, completing a career-best 69.1 percent of his throws for 3,978 yards, 27 scores and 13 interceptions.

Garoppolo signed a five-year, $137.5 million contract with the 49ers in 2018. The 49ers would likely trade Garoppolo if they signed Brady.

Brady, 42, had a down year in 2019. The six-time Super Bowl champion completed 60.8 percent of his throws for 4,057 yards, 24 scores and eight interceptions in 16 starts. Brady hasn't missed a start for injury-related reasons since 2008.

"I don't know what the future holds right now," Brady told White Wednesday on Instagram. "I'm just trying to be patient through this [free agency] process. This is my first time going through it. In the meantime, I'm going to spend a lot of time with my family over the next 10 to 12 days.

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"We have a little vacation planned, which I'm looking forward to."

Brady also called his 20 years with the Patriots an "amazing experience."

Sources told NFL Network, ESPN and the Boston Herald that Brady and Patriots coach Bill Belichick spoke earlier this week. A source told NBC Boston the talk wasn't "particularly productive." A source told the Herald that the call "didn't go well." Brady is still expected to hit free agency March 18.

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