San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is never one to bite his tongue.
Whether he is being brutally honest about Jimmy Garoppolo or delivering harsh messages to his team, he generally keeps it pretty real.
This past week Shanahan was a guest on “Flying Coach with Sean McVay and Peter Schrager.”
During the interview, McVay pressed Shanahan for his thoughts on the Los Angeles Rams acquiring Matthew Stafford over the offseason.
Shanahan was not pleased. Apparently, the Niners were very much in the running for Stafford’s services as well – only to watch him get dealt to a divisional rival.
“You don’t want to get me started, dude,” Shanahan said. “That was frustrating. I was in Cabo. I was studying it all. … I remember looking through it because everybody was telling me it was a possibility.
“Stafford’s the man. I studied him hard coming out of college. And you always play against him, so you know how good he is. But to know he might be available and to spend two weeks really watching him, Sean, yeah, he’s better than I realized. He was the man. He’s actually underrated to me. I know how good of a guy you got. I know how good he is at play-action. I know how smart he is. Not only does he just have a big arm, but he’s got touch, and he knows where to go with the ball. So I was trying to get involved in it.
“I remember Saturday I was so stressed out and finally we talked to someone. It was like seven at night, and they’re like, ‘No, nothing’s happening (with a trade) at the earliest until tomorrow, so you can finish your night.’ So I’m like, alright, I’m done. I put my phone down, talk to Mandy. I’m like, alright, ‘Let’s go out to dinner, let’s have some drinks.’
Well that settles that. https://t.co/s4NxQP2MHr
— Game 7 (@game7__) July 3, 2021
“Half an hour later, my buddy calls me and is like, ‘I’m just telling ya, if you want Stafford, you need to get a hold of him right now.’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean? We just talked to people. I can sleep on this. We’ll talk to them tomorrow.’ ‘I’m just telling you, you need to talk to him right now.’ And then 10 minutes later it was all over.”
Stafford was able to lead a fairly unimpressive Detroit Lions group to the playoffs three times. Although he has been a little injury-hobbled over the past few years, when he’s on – he’s one of the league’s better quarterbacks. He has no real weaknesses besides his weird wife, so it makes sense that Shanahan would be disappointed.
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Charles Kruger has been credentialed to cover two Super Bowls, four NBA Finals, and one World Series. A 20-year veteran in the sports world, he has sources spanning the NBA, MLB, NFL, UFC and NASCAR. Currently residing in Los Angeles, Calif., he is Game 7’s go-to source for rumors surrounding the Lakers, Clippers and Dodgers.