When Matthew Stafford hit the trade block in Detroit, you might remember the 49ers were among his rumored landing spots. San Francisco was reportedly one of Stafford's preferred destinations and the team was looking for an upgrade at quarterback.
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan was especially smitten with Stafford, especially as he started watching more tape. But before Shanahan could make a move, the Rams swooped in and stole Stafford away.
It was especially frustrating for Shanahan, not just because he lost Stafford to an NFC West rival. Shanahan also happened to be in Cabo when the trade went down, which is exactly where Stafford and Rams head coach Sean McVay were vacationing at the time, too.
When Shanahan appeared this week on the Flying Coach podcast with McVay and Peter Schrager, McVay couldn't help but ask him, "What did you think when you saw that we traded for Stafford?"
"You don't want to get me started, dude," said Shanahan. "That was frustrating. I was in Cabo, I was watching it all."
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Shanahan said he was "trying to get involved" in the Stafford sweepstakes by talking to Stafford's agent Tom Condon "to find out what was happening." He said the 49ers spoke to a source on the night the Lions struck an agreement with the Rams who assured Shanahan that "nothing's happening at the earliest until tomorrow, so you can finish your night."
At that point, Shanahan put down his phone and went out for drinks with his wife. A half hour later, he got another call from a friend who told him, "If you want Stafford you need to get a hold of him right now."
"And then like 10 minutes later it was all over," Shanahan said. "It wasn't fun."
"If it makes you feel any better," said McVay, "it came together faster than I thought, too."
According to reports, the 49ers weren't comfortable with the Lions' asking price for Stafford and never made a formal offer. They ultimately traded up from No. 12 in the draft to take QB Trey Lance third overall. And they still have incumbent starter Jimmy Garoppolo.
But Shanahan sure would have been happy with Stafford.
"Stafford's the man," he said. "I studied him hard coming out of college and we used to 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, yeah, he's better than I had realized. I mean, he was the man and he's actually underrated, to me."
"I felt the same way," said McVay.
