The San Francisco Raiders had a horror injury run at quarterback last season, losing four by the time of their NFC Championship loss to the Eagles.
They did have back-up to the back-up with veteran signal-caller Philip Rivers set for a sensational comeback if they made the Superbowl.
HC Kyle Shanahan confirmed as much, with Rivers being on the radar at the beginning of the last campaign.
“He (Rivers) was prepared to,” Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said. “Now that’s stuff we talked about throughout the whole year. We would’ve had to have seen how that was for the Super Bowl, but that was the plan most of the year.”
This unlikely scenario almost came to fruition as the 49ers lost Trey Lance to a broken right ankle in week 2, and veteran Jimmy Garoppolo to a broken left foot.
The run of bad luck continued when they lost started Jock Purdy to a torn ulnar collateral ligament injury to his elbow, and backup Josh Johnson to concussion.
Purdy managed to see out the game, despite being unable to pass, but if the 49ers won, they would have had to pull Houdini out of the hat to take on the Kansas City Chiefs.
If not Houdini, then at least Rivers, who officially finished his career at the Colts in 2020, after a 17-year spell in the NFL.
What a story that would have been, a case of Cry me a Rivers.
