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NFL

With coach and GM on board, Niners' focus turns to quarterback

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — If you want to copy the blueprint of most successful NFL franchises, it starts with football’s version of a holy trinity: a head coach, a general manager and a quarterback.

After hiring Kyle Shanahan as coach and John Lynch as general manager, the San Francisco 49ers hope they have found their solution for the first two. Now, their attention turns to finding the third and perhaps most important piece, the quarterback.

About a month from now, Colin Kaepernick, the only quarterback the team currently has under contract for 2017, probably will cease to have that designation when he’s expected to opt out of his deal. When he does, he’ll join Blaine Gabbert, Thad Lewis and Christian Ponder as free agents. With Shanahan and Lynch taking over, there’s no guarantee that any of them will be back, though it also can’t be ruled out.

Which means there’s likely a full-blown makeover coming to the Niners’ quarterbacks room. As you’d expect, even before Shanahan officially signed on for the job, there were plenty of rumors and reports connecting the 49ers to various quarterbacks around the league. That speculation is only expected to heat up in the days, weeks and months to come.

Acquiring Kirk Cousins could be high on the 49ers’ wish list, with new coach Kyle Shanahan having worked with the quarterback in Washington. Steve Nurenberg/Icon Sportswire

It’s too early to pinpoint which direction Shanahan wants to go, especially since he hasn’t even had time to evaluate the various college prospects yet. But, yes, there will be options on the trade and free-agent market that could make sense as short and long-term options of Shanahan’s Niners. There will be no shortage of competition, though as teams like the Cleveland Browns, Chicago Bears, New York Jets, Houston Texans, Buffalo Bills and Denver Broncos could be in the market for immediate starters, with others like the San Diego Chargers and Arizona Cardinals possibly looking for future solutions.

Keeping in mind there’s a very real chance the Niners will (and have to) bring in more than one quarterback, here’s a look at some of the options they’ll have to consider over the next few months:

Kirk Cousins: This is one that probably won’t vanish anytime soon, because Shanahan was in place and a fan of Cousins when he was Washington’s offensive coordinator. It’s also probably the most difficult and expensive move to make. Cousins played on the franchise tag a year ago and the Redskins are likely to use it again to prevent him from leaving without compensation. That doesn’t mean the Niners couldn’t facilitate a deal with Washington, but it would cost a lot of draft capital and even more on a long-term contract. And remember, Cousins had his two best seasons (2015 and 2016) after Shanahan departed for Atlanta.

Matt Schaub: Like Cousins, Shanahan and Schaub have a history, having worked together in Houston and Atlanta. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported last weekend that Shanahan would like to bring Schaub with him to San Francisco, presumably as a steady hand to help guide young quarterbacks in understanding Shanahan’s scheme. Schaub is a free agent and wouldn’t cost a lot to bring on board.

Jimmy Garoppolo: Garoppolo is under contract for one more year with the Patriots, meaning it would take a trade to acquire him. It’s been reported that the Patriots will seek a first-round pick for him, though perhaps something could be worked out if that price isn’t met. Either way, Garoppolo won’t come cheap and would also come with a fairly large price tag for a contract extension. Garoppolo has only started two games and though he played well, giving up valuable draft picks and a lucrative contract would come with more inherent risk than other alternatives.

Jay Cutler: Cutler played for Shanahan’s father Mike in Denver after the Broncos selected him in the first round of the 2006 NFL draft, and Lynch has spoken highly of Cutler’s arm talent in the past. At 33, Cutler is what he is at this point but would offer more upside as a bridge quarterback to the next starter than someone like Schaub. He also might not cost as much to obtain if the Bears cut him loose, a move that would save Chicago $13 million worth of cap space. The Bears also need help at quarterback, though, so they might not be inclined to let him go without at least getting something in return.

Brian Hoyer: Hoyer would make sense in a role similar to the one described for Schaub above. It wouldn’t make much sense to bring in both but like Schaub, Hoyer has experience playing for Shanahan and the duo even had some success together in Cleveland. He’d also make a good mentor for a younger quarterback or two and could even be a bridge starter if need be.

Mike Glennon: Glennon is an intriguing case because he’s actually started 18 games in his career and thrown for 30 touchdowns against 15 interceptions. At 6-foot-6, Glennon is the type of pure pocket passer Shanahan supposedly covets, though he’s only completed 59.4 percent of his career passes. Glennon isn’t likely a franchise solution, but he profiles as the type Shanahan might be able to elevate to solid starter status.

A drafted rookie: Again, Shanahan hasn’t even had a chance to evaluate this year’s draft class and until he does, he won’t be able to determine the direction he wants to go at the position for the long-term. The Niners own the No. 2 overall pick, which means they should have their pick of quarterbacks if there’s one they really like. The early read on this draft class is that there won’t be a signal-caller worth taking that high, though North Carolina’s Mitch Trubisky, Clemson’s Deshaun Watson and Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer have been mentioned as possibilities in media circles. The Niners could also wait until the middle rounds to find someone Shanahan believes he could develop while using their top pick to get the best player available. Either way, it’s a safe bet the Niners will spend a pick on a quarterback at some point.

NFL

Kyle Rudolph's dream: A space where kids in hospital 'can be real kids'

MINNEAPOLIS — The children Kyle Rudolph sees hooked up to medical devices at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital — or the parents there with them, trying to force smiles through their kaleidoscopes of emotion — could have just as easily been in his own family.

When the Minnesota Vikings tight end was 15 months old, his younger brother Casey was born with neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of cancer that forms in nerve cells and attacks infants. Casey Rudolph went straight from the hospital where he was born to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, where he spent the first year of his life undergoing chemotherapy; he had a kidney and adrenal gland removed before beating the disease.

The family returned to the hospital throughout Kyle Rudolph’s childhood; only those times, it was to say thank-you by volunteering. Rudolph’s years at Notre Dame were dotted with trips to children’s hospitals in South Bend, and since 2011, when the Vikings drafted him, Rudolph has been a regular presence as part of the team’s four-decade partnership with the Masonic Children’s Hospital.

Now Rudolph is putting his own imprint on that partnership. He and his wife Jordan announced Tuesday that fundraising has been completed for Kyle Rudolph’s End Zone — a 2,500-square-foot space at the hospital where children and teenagers can play, relax and engage in healing therapies. The goal is to have the space open by the start of the 2017 football season.

“From [the point my brother was born], my mom and dad, myself, countless family members were always in and out of the hospital — me being the 15-month-old big brother, constantly in the way, tripping on his IV cords, medicine lines, just a disaster at all times in the hospital, from what I’ve been told,” Rudolph said Tuesday. “We wanted to come up with an idea: Where’s a place where, not only these patients when healthy enough to get out of their rooms, but where can their families go, where can brothers and sisters go, where can friends and family go?

“Through the course of a five-, 10-, 15-month stay in the hospital, the hours and days and months go by. At times, these people don’t leave their rooms — not because they’re not healthy enough. There’s just nothing else for them to do. You can only play with video games for so long. You can only sit and do puzzles and color coloring books [for so long]. At some point, these kids want to be real kids. We wanted to provide a space for them where, no matter what their situation or circumstance is, they can come down here and be kids.”

Designs for the space, which will redevelop an underutilized corner of the hospital, call for a 7- or 8-foot basketball hoop, a sports simulator with a drop-down screen, a media hub, a kitchen and lounge area, an air hockey table, and a seating area for quiet activities. Rudolph and the project’s architects asked for the input of patients such Casey O’Brien, the former quarterback at Cretin-Derham Hall High School (St. Paul, Minnesota) who spent more than 160 nights in the hospital during two bouts with bone cancer before he was cleared to return to his team and hold for extra points last season.

“We spent a little time with him last summer, because it was important to us to get their perspective,” Rudolph said. “We may have all these great ideas about what we want to put in a space and that we think are cool, but if the kids don’t want it and the kids don’t use it, it’s not cool. The worst thing we can do is put a space down here that looks incredible from the street, but there’s never any kids in it. That’s the whole point of building the space: kids can come down here and they don’t want to go back to their rooms. They’re kind of forced to go back to their rooms. We hope it gets a lot of use.”

Rudolph said he will continue to raise funds to finance the operation of the space over the coming years to make sure it stays current and relevant to what future patients want. As he and his wife raise their 4-month-old twin girls, Rudolph is already thinking ahead to the days when they’ll be old enough to visit — and of the families they might meet there who are just looking for a slice of normalcy.

“When my kids come back and spend time down there, and visit patients and families, [we want to make sure] this space looks just as good as when we opened it up,” Rudolph said.

NFL

Trip to Super Bowl LI for Cowboys' Dak Prescott adds to his motivation

FRISCO, Texas — A few days before Super Bowl LI, Dak Prescott found himself in Houston’s NRG Stadium at an event for Pepsi.

He looked around, taking mental notes, thinking one day he would be in a Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys.

“It just ignites a little fire in me and makes me want to get back to work faster,” Prescott said.

Dak Prescott said his touchdown pass to Jason Witten to beat the Eagles in overtime on Oct. 30, was his favorite moment of the 2016 season. Tom Pennington/Getty Images

Fifty weeks ago, the Cowboys introduced themselves to Prescott for the first time at the Senior Bowl. He was one of the South team’s quarterbacks. The Cowboys’ staff was coaching the North. As much as the coaches liked Prescott, he was still their seventh-rated quarterback in the draft.

They tried to trade back into the first round to take Paxton Lynch. They traded to move up to take Connor Cook earlier in the fourth round. With their first of two fourth-round picks, they took Charles Tapper. They didn’t take Prescott until the 135th overall pick, a compensatory selection in the fourth round.

As he accepted the Associated Press Offensive Rookie of the Year Award this past Saturday, he thanked 31 other teams for passing on him. Later as he met the media, he amended the statement.

“Actually 32 teams passed up on me three times, so the Cowboys just … they got lucky,” Prescott joked.

But that Prescott went late in the fourth round was more of a motivator than he let on during the season.

The quarterback that won Super Bowl LI a few days after Prescott stepped on NRG Stadium’s field, Tom Brady, has carried his draft-day scars with him since 2000. Even with his fifth Super Bowl win, “The Brady 6,” still drives him.

In 2000, there were six quarterbacks selected before the Patriots took Brady with the 199th selection: Chad Pennington (No. 18, Jets), Giovanni Carmazzi (65, 49ers), Chris Redman (75, Ravens), Tee Martin (163, Steelers), Marc Bulger (168, Saints) and Spergon Wynn (183, Browns).

“The Brady 6” became noteworthy because of Brady’s Super Bowl success.

One day, perhaps “The Prescott 7” — Jared Goff (No. 1, Rams), Carson Wentz (No. 2, Eagles), Lynch (No. 26, Broncos), Christian Hackenberg (No. 51, Jets), Jacoby Brissett (No. 91, Patriots), Cody Kessler (No. 93, Browns) and Cook (No. 100, Raiders) — will be as noteworthy.

Being selected with the 135th pick, “just allowed the chip to grow,” Prescott said. “It’s hard for me to say there’s 134 people better than me in this [draft]. It’s hard for me to say seven other quarterbacks that are better than me. So you just sit down, watch that, expecting to go a lot higher than I did, which allowed the chip on my shoulder to grow. I go out there each and every day remembering that, trying to prove my worth in practice, in the weight room and in the games on Sunday.”

As has been chronicled over and over, Prescott’s rookie season was nothing short of phenomenal. His Rookie of the Year Award speaks to the recognition of his 23 touchdown passes and just four interceptions and most importantly, the Cowboys’ 13-3 record.

“I can’t say it’s unbelievable just for the simple fact that I have confidence in myself,” Prescott said. “I have high expectations for myself. I believe in myself, I think, when no one else does. It’s just hard work paying off and having faith in myself, faith in my teammates, coaches, the guys that gave me that opportunity.”

When he was asked about his favorite moment from his rookie season, he picked what was arguably his worst game. He completed just 48.7 percent of his passes in the Oct. 30 meeting against the Philadelphia Eagles. He was intercepted once and sacked twice. He was off for most of the game.

But when it mattered most, late in the fourth quarter, he found his rhythm and carried that to overtime in which he scrambled out of trouble and found Jason Witten for a winning touchdown.

“I hadn’t thrown Witten a touchdown all year long,” Prescott said. “That was the game he broke the record for starters. To get that touchdown to Witten, a guy I respect so much, that’s made me a better player; that was a special moment for me.”

The Cowboys’ loss to the Green Bay Packers still hurts Prescott. He and Ezekiel Elliott, as well as the offensive line and some other offensive players, made a postseason trip to Las Vegas. The week in Houston for the Super Bowl was another chance to unwind. He said he will take a couple of weeks off before getting back to work at the end of the month.

He will head down to Orlando, Florida, to train, like he did for the scouting combine, and then begin taking part in the optional workouts at The Star in March.

His time inside NRG Stadium will serve as motivation.

“It allows the chip to grow again,” he said.

NFL

$200 sleepwear? Brady's TB12 brand comes at hefty price

Tom Brady hasn’t talked much about his business plans for after he leaves the game, but filings to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office in the past seven months made by his representation suggest that the five-time Super Bowl champion is going all-in on the health, nutrition and physical fitness space.

Yee & Dubin Sports has filed for 23 trademarks — 22 attached to a variety of products and services for Brady’s TB12 brand and one for the motto of his TB12 Center, “Sustained Peak Performance.”

One by one, Brady’s website has started selling items for which trademarks have been filed.

A protein powder. A cookbook. Exercise mats. A weighted vest. A medicine ball.

Then there’s performance sleepwear, which Under Armour recently started selling with the TB12 brand for $200 for top and bottom.

The TB12 Sports Therapy Center in Patriot Place near Gillette Stadium serves as the hub for Brady’s business operations.

Based on the idea that everyone could benefit from how Tom Brady has trained, the business charges $250 for an initial 90-minute evaluation. Customers get their food diaries analyzed and their therapy/body work customized.

They are given a body coach, who interacts with them in person for $200 a session. It includes servicing over the phone for additional exercises and needs.

It’s expected that in order to make an impact that is meaningful to Brady’s coffers, the model would be replicated in places across the country. But being branded by one of the greatest players of all time isn’t enough.

The cookbook, which Brady calls a nutrition manual, has sold out at $200 a pop several times, but quantities were never revealed. The protein business, for example, is very brand-loyal, and the Brady premium is hefty.

BiPro, which makes Brady’s protein powder, sells a pound of its own Whey Protein for $36, while Brady’s retails for $54.

Then there’s the question about what type of role model Brady is himself and whether the man behind his routines is even credible.

His personal chef, Allan Campbell, told The Boston Globe that the quarterback only eats organic, eats no white sugar or white flour, has no coffee, caffeine or dairy, and doesn’t eat tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms or eggplants. He also doesn’t eat fruit.

New York-based registered dietitian Lauren Harris-Pincus recently told the New York Post that many of Brady’s reasons for avoiding these foods are “sketchy” and some claims made by Campbell have been debunked.

There’s also Brady’s association with Alex Guerrero, who is the mastermind behind Brady’s training and the performance center. Two of Guerrero’s products have come under scrutiny by the FTC — one called Supreme Greens, which claimed to help cancer and diabetes patients, and another called Neurosafe, a drink that was marketed as preventing the effects of head trauma.

Aside from workouts, Brady preaches pliability, which he says is meant to “keep your muscles long and soft.” Brady has marketed the method he and Guerrero use as being more effective than traditional physical therapy. If Brady can ever get insurance companies to pay for it in the way they pay for physical therapy, it’d be a huge cash cow.

On Sunday, Brady did his part and added another legendary performance to his lore. But it’s still unknown whether the masses will buy the classic marketing pitch: What made him could help make you, too — especially because really turning it into a robust business means selling it outside of New England.

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