Harbaugh revisits 49ers' ‘evaluation' of Peyton Manning

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On the evening of March 13, 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Greg Roman traveled to North Carolina to watch then-free-agent quarterback Peyton Manning work out.Six days later, Manning chose to sign with the Denver Broncos instead of the 49ers and the Tennessee Titans.Shortly thereafter, Manning reflected on the decision in an interview with Sports Illustrated's Peter King. Manning said it was difficult to call Titans coach Mike Munchak and Harbaugh to deliver bad news."I wish I hadn't gotten so close to Munch," Manning said. "That was a tough call. Same with Jim Harbaugh."REWIND: Full details of Alex Smith's contract
More than two months later, Harbaugh made his first direct comments about the 49ers' pursuit of Manning. Harbaugh confirmed he received that phone call from Manning.But he objected to the notion the 49ers would've awarded Manning huge money and brushed aside Alex Smith. The Broncos signed Manning to a deal that took up 18 million in cap space. The 49ers' adjusted 2012 salary cap is 138 million."Oh, one other thing," Harbaugh said at the conclusion of his media briefing Wednesday with reporters after practice. He had something he wanted to say.
"There's a perception out there, and it's an erroneous perception, that we were flirting with Peyton Manning. I keep hearing that over and over and over again. It's silly. And it's untrue. It's phony."Even the perception we were pursuing him. We were evaluating him. I said it all along that Alex Smith is our quarterback. There's no scenario other than Alex choosing to sign with another team that we would've considered him not as our quarterback."Don't like to compare or talk about somebody else who's on another team, but in this case, wanted to set the record straight. Alex Smith is our quarterback, was our quarterback and had every intention of always bringing him back. There'd be no circumstance where we would've let Alex Smith go."Now, were we out there seeing, evaluating if we could have them both? Heck, yeah. You evaluate that. You eliminate the possibility. Further evidence, we would not have given any player that was out there in free agency (one-sixth) of our salary cap and let six or seven of our own guys go. So hopefully that sets the record straight and you don't have to keep reporting the silliness and the phoniness."Q: Did Manning contact the 49ers and express interest in joining the 49ers?
Harbaugh: "Yeah, like I said, there was interest. We evaluated it, pursued it, or we evaluated it and there were conversations. I'm not going to go into all those personal conversations. But there was nothing said to Alex that was not said to Peyton Manning or in-house here, on the record, off the record. Both of those young men knew exactly what our intentions were. Very clear about that, that Alex Smith would be back here as our quarterback in 2012, if we could make signing. We said the same thing to Alex that we said to Peyton."Q: Was Alex going to Miami just part of the game with free agency?
Harbaugh: "He was a free agent, and he went on a visit, yes."Q: When you evaluated Peyton and went out to North Carolina, what did you think of him?
Harbaugh: "Well, we thought that was a critical thing to do. He came off a season where he was injured and didn't play. He's going to be a fine player in the National Football League and he made the best decision for himself going to the Denver Broncos. We wish him nothing but success. He'll be good. He'll be fine.Q: You would've had to severely adjust your roster to fit him under the salary cap?
Harbaugh: "We're not going into all the . . . it's not your right or anybody else's right to know exactly what those implications would've been, but you can understand . . . The best fit for us was Alex Smith. And we weren't going to give a sixth of our salary cap to anybody because we like six or seven of the current guys we have on this team that much."Q: If Manning said he wanted to come, would Alex still be here as well?
Harbaugh: "That would've been the hope, yeah. Like I said, there was no scenario where we weren't going to have Alex Smith on this team if we could help it. You don't control all those factors. I think that's very clear, very concise. Hopefully, everybody can understand that.Q: When he decided on Denver, he contacted you personally. Is that accurate?
Harbaugh: "That's accurate, that like I said, Peyton chose the Denver Broncos and we wish him well."

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