The San Francisco 49ers quarterback situation is a topic that gets a lot of sports media personalities talking, some of whom are better informed than others. According to longtime Bay Area sports radio host Larry Krueger, one national pundit’s discussions involving Brock Purdy, Trey Lance, and Sam Darnold seem a little too informed.
On Tuesday’s episode of The Rich Eisen Show, Eisen suggested that the 49ers might want to consider listening to trade offers for Lance if Purdy is able to fully recover from the elbow injury he suffered in the NFC Championship Game against the Philadelphia Eagles last season.
“If Purdy starts throwing now, and he starts showing up, and he can go in training camp, and they’re looking at him saying, ‘Oh, he looks just like the kid last year,’ and he’s not sitting there with his arm in ice, and he does what he needs to in training camp, and he does what he needs to do in the first preseason game, then he’s your guy,” said Eisen.
“Then all of a sudden, they’ll be taking calls again for Lance. That’s the guy. Because he’s the one with a fifth-year option that’s going to be through the roof. And if the Niners want to send him somewhere else to not have to deal with that and have to make that decision after hardly seeing him, let somebody else deal with that.”
By all accounts, that sounds like a pretty standard take from a national NFL sports media personality regarding the 49ers’ situation. Eisen isn’t the first person to suggest that they should consider moving Lance and probably won’t be the last.
Something seemed amiss to Krueger, however. The former KNBR host, who now works for 95.7 The Game, suggested on Thursday that Eisen made his comments on behalf of 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch, who would presumably like to see that scenario play out.
https://twitter.com/sportslarryk/status/1661858346176233475?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1661858346176233475%7Ctwgr%5E739e5de0004d9c8ddead702733b24c8d21e04ad5%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfgate.com%2F49ers%2Farticle%2Fkrueger-says-49ers-leaking-to-rich-eisen-18121260.php
“Eisen clearly has a pipeline to the [49ers] front office,” Krueger wrote. “He’s a huge fan of Lynch/Shanahan. I can’t recall him ever being critical of either guy. He just laid out their QB game plan, and their thinking. What do you believe? Does Rich have this much insight on every team’s position battles or is he parroting what they’ve told him?”
SFGate’s Gabe Fernandez listened to Eisen’s comments before and after the chosen clip and didn’t find anything to back up Krueger’s theory. If anything, the language that he uses seems to drive home that this is simply speculation. Fernandez also notes that, if Eisen is indeed sharing intel straight from the source, he probably could have shared something way more interesting.
“If Eisen were getting the big insider info Kruger claims he is, he’d probably be sharing much more interesting tidbits, like when Purdy is for sure returning, or if the No. 2 spot is going to Lance or Sam Darnold,” wrote Fernandez. “Instead, we just got speculation from a longtime professional football-watcher, who is clearly so good at his job that his opinions sound like Niners’ trade secrets to people who jump to conclusions based on Twitter clips.”
As a company that scours sports radio and podcast clips all day, we have to agree. There isn’t much in what Eisen is saying that implies he knows more than any other national NFL pundit. Also, absolutely no offense to him but if the 49ers wanted to drum up a narrative in the media, there are other insiders whose words would carry much further.
We’ll have to see if Krueger’s theorizing gets back to him before next week’s shows. Chances are, Eisen will have a little fun with the speculation.
[SFGate, The Rich Eisen Show, Larry Kreuger] Image Credit: The Rich Eisen Show
