When Kyle Shanahan was officially hired as the 49ers head coach back in February 2017, it turns out that one of the first things he tried to do was trade for Jimmy Garoppolo. 

At the time, the 49ers only had one quarterback under contract heading into 2018 -- Colin Kaepernick -- and they knew they weren't going to keep him, so they really had zero quarterbacks to work with. 

With zero quarterbacks on his roster, Shanahan did what any other desperate coach would do: He walked up to Bill Belichick at the NFL Combine last year and tried to make a trade. 

"At that time, the only guys we thought were franchise quarterbacks that were being mentioned were Kirk [Cousins] and Jimmy," Shanahan told MMQB.com recently. "And I knew Kirk wasn't going to be a possibility. And I remember asking Bill personally down at the combine about Jimmy, and very quickly he told me that wasn't a possibility. So we moved on from that. He told me he wasn't going to trade him."

You have to shoot your shot, right? 

The 49ers must have been absolutely enamored with Garoppolo because they tried to trade for him at least one other time last offseason. Forty-Niners general manager John Lynch also called the Patriots at some point during the offseason about a possible Garoppolo trade, but he also got shot down. 

After whiffing twice on trade proposals with the Patriots, the 49ers never tried again. As a matter of fact, when Garoppolo was finally traded, it happened only because the Patriots called the 49ers. 

Shanahan remembers the day of the trade vividly. The 49ers were coming off a 33-10 loss to the Eagles that dropped them to 0-8 and they weren't expecting any calls from the Patriots on the Oct. 31 deadline. The 49ers coach was asked if there was a "holy sh--" moment when New England did call. 

"There really was," Shanahan told MMQB. "We were 0–8. We'd just gotten our asses kicked by Philly. I came in on a Monday and that was the last thing I was thinking about. And that ended up popping up. It's different, because it's a big deal, we want those draft picks. We know have a ways to go, we want to build this organization the right way. And what worried me was having to decide long-term on a guy in just a few games."

Of course, Shanahan wasn't actually that worried about losing the draft picks for Garoppolo, because, according to him, it took less than 10 minutes for the 49ers to decide to take the deal. 

The one thing we'll likely never know is why the Patriots decided to trade Garoppolo. Maybe the ESPN report was right and Robert Kraft forced Belichick's hand, or it's possible that the Patriots knew they weren't going to be able to pay both Garoppolo and Tom Brady. After all, Garoppolo did just sign the biggest contract in NFL history this week, a deal that the Patriots definitely wouldn't have been able to pull off this year. 

Either way, Garoppolo is now in San Francisco and the 49ers had no problem dropping an NFL record $137.5 million on their new quarterback. 

"Everyone wants to talk the numbers. Man, that's what quarterbacks cost. I don't even think about the numbers," Shanahan said. "I look at everything as, 'Is this a top guy? Is this a guy that has a chance to be one of the better guys in the league?' And once you believe that, you do whatever it takes to keep him. And that's what it takes to keep him."

The 49ers whiffed twice when trying to trade for Garoppolo, but in the end, that might have actually helped. Belichick knew the 49ers were serious about trading for Jimmy and Belichick knew Garoppolo would be in good hands with Shanahan, which might be why he mysteriously called the 49ers on Oct. 31 to give up his prized backup quarterback.