49ers' Kyle Shanahan had Philip Rivers hope for Super Bowl LVII

San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan had a name in mind regarding Super Bowl LVII after quarterback Brock Purdy suffered his elbow injury during the NFC Championship Game. 

"I'm just thinking, man, I hope Brock's not as bad as they're saying, and what's going to be our plan B? We're going to have to go get Philip Rivers, someone like that, for the Super Bowl," Shanahan explained during the latest edition of "The TK Show" podcast, as shared by David Bonilla of 49ers WebZone. 

Purdy became a rookie sensation last season after the 49ers lost both Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo to campaign-ending inuries. However, the last pick of the 2022 NFL Draft then went down with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow during the NFC Championship Game loss at the Philadelphia Eagles on Jan. 29, and fourth-choice San Francisco signal-caller Josh Johnson suffered a concussion in that same game. 

Shanahan acknowledged during the podcast that he "didn't think" Garoppolo would have recovered from the broken foot he suffered in early December in time to start against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII if the 49ers were able to advance past the Eagles. There may be reasons why Shanahan specifically mentioned Rivers as an emergency option. 

It was suggested shortly after this year's NFL combine that Rivers reached out to both the 49ers and Miami Dolphins about ending his retirement after those clubs endured quarterback-related woes in December. For what it's worth, Rivers later claimed that he "didn’t contact anyone" and assumed some teams "may have been just looking for a contingency plan" late in the season. 

Rivers played for what are now known as the Los Angeles Chargers from 2004 through the 2019 season before he spent the 2020 campaign with the Indianapolis Colts. The 41-year-old retired in January 2021 but reportedly entertained thoughts of a comeback with the New Orleans Saints the following fall. 

Shanahan added during the podcast he found himself hoping in Philadelphia this past January that somebody such as Rivers was "working out and ready to go here in two weeks" just in case San Francisco somehow pulled off the upset over the Eagles without having a healthy quarterback in the lineup. That scenario now makes for one of the more interesting "what if" NFL stories in recent memory.