The San Francisco 49ers plucked quarterback Josh Rosen off the Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice squad this week. It was a move out of necessity. The desperate 49ers were down to one quarterback heading into their Week 16 matchup against the Arizona Cardinals.
C.J. Beathard is getting the start after Nick Mullens suffered an elbow injury during Sunday's loss to the Dallas Cowboys. Jimmy Garoppolo has started practicing again this week but isn't expected to play on Saturday.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan joined KNBR on Wednesday and explained that general manager John Lynch came to him after they confirmed that Mullens was done for the season. Lynch asked Shanahan if the team needed to acquire another quarterback for the next two weeks. With just Beathard on the active roster and veteran Josh Johnson on the practice squad, it seemed like a good idea.
"I was like, 'Yeah,'" Shanahan told Scott Reiss and Kerry Crowley. "The odds of Jimmy being able to go isn't high. He might get in there and practice some, but we've probably got to figure out how to get a third guy in here too, just in case something happens."
The plan was probably to activate/flex Johnson from the practice squad. That was until he landed on the COVID-19 list. Shanahan didn't like the idea of going into a game with one quarterback and knew the 49ers had to act fast.
"If there's something out there, we should probably try to do it," Shanahan said. "The first thing you want to do is just get someone who's available right away because you can't just take people off other people's practice squads unless they agree to come, so you start to talk about our list of free agents who are out there on the street, as we say."
That wasn't an option either because it would take any "off-the-street" free agent six days to join his new teammates due to COVID-19 protocols. That would not have been in time for Saturday's game.
That's when Shanahan and Lynch started breaking down the names of quarterbacks on practice squads across the league. They wanted someone who has played in an NFL game before. From there, they made calls to see who would be willing to leave his team.
Rosen checked the boxes.
"For Josh to be willing to come here, especially leaving a place that he was in, with a team that's most likely going to the playoffs and maybe can so some stuff after, that was exciting for us," Shanahan said. "And to also know that we got a guy in here who did get drafted in the first round, who's got some ability with his arm, it was exciting.
"We were going to get someone, and we need that body. And to get someone with his ability was pretty cool."
Shanahan was asked about Rosen's potential future with the team. Is this a two-week job, or could he be auditioning for a spot with the 49ers next season?
"Everyone gets evaluated that way," Shanahan said. "But the way I'm looking at it is the way I just told you in terms of we needed to bring (in) a guy. For it to be a guy who was a first-round pick just [two years ago], that's a bonus. So, I'm excited to have a guy in here with that ability that we are going to look at."
Shanahan added that right now, the coaching staff is doing its best to get Beathard ready for Saturday and catch up Rosen so that he can function if needed.
You can listen to the entire conversation with Shanahan below.
