Not only are we in the offseason, we’re also in “unnamed executive says this” season, and we have our first involving the Tennessee Titans.
In an article by The Athletic’s Mike Sando, an unnamed executive believes the San Francisco 49ers will bring Tom Brady in, have Brock Purdy sit behind him, and trade Trey Lance to the Titans.
“I think they will trade Trey Lance to Tennessee and then they will end up with Brady and Brady will play one year for his home team, and they will have Brock Purdy as the backup,” an exec from another team predicted Sunday. “That is the chatter. They have the defense already, Brady wants to win one more, and this is right up the 49ers’ alley.”
Speculation about a Niners-Titans trade for Lance really kicked off after the San Fran signal-caller posted a picture of Ran Carthon, the Niners’ former director of player personnel and current Titans GM, on social media with what looked like fingers crossed emojis.
For the record, that particular emoji is really defined as “good luck” when you search for it, per my 12-year-old, and as confirmed by me. Still, that didn’t stop the speculation from beginning — and in reality, the dot-connecting on this one isn’t far-fetched.
We know Carthon’s connection to the Niners, and the Titans may be looking to move on from Ryan Tannehill. San Francisco bringing in Brady would almost certainly lead to the team trading one of their young signal-callers.
Lance would be an intriguing option as a potential long-term solution, but he would come with plenty of risk.
He’s still recovering from a broken ankle, and quite honestly we don’t know what he’ll be with such a limited sample size that was underwhelming to begin with.
The Titans would also have to give up draft capital to get him, although there are general managers out there who believe a third-round pick might be enough to get it done.
If that’s the price, the Titans should jump on it. However, expect the Niners to fight like hell to get more after the team gave up three firsts and a third-round pick to move up to get him.
Also in Sando’s article, another executive believes the Niners will end up holding on to Lance.
“They’ll let Jimmy G walk, have Purdy compete with Lance, and the job will be Purdy’s to lose,” an agent who represents other quarterbacks predicted Sunday. “They’ll be open to a Lance trade, knowing that is a long shot. Purdy is so much cheaper than Jimmy, they can add players around Purdy now and maybe still develop Lance.”
The Titans trading for Lance greatly depends on Brady or another high-profile quarterback going to San Francisco.
Sure, it’s possible the Niners trade Lance if that doesn’t happen and Purdy beats him out for the starting job, but at that point the 49ers would be taking an even bigger loss in terms of what they gave up as compared to what they’ll get that it would make more sense to hold on to him as insurance for Purdy.
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