With a 4pm EST NFL trade deadline, the San Francisco 49ers completed a trade with Tampa Bay sending quarterback Tim Rattay to the Buccaneers for an undisclosed 2006 draft pick.
The 49ers and the Chicago Bears were the only two teams that carried four quarterbacks into the start of the regular season, making the Niners an obvious candidate for the Bucs to contact when their starter Brian Griese was lost for the season on Sunday with a knee injury.
“Every year at this time it seems that the quarterback position is what people come looking for, and it just so happened that we had four quality quarterbacks on our active roster,” said head coach Mike Nolan.
Rattay played six seasons (2000-05) for San Francisco with 16 starts in 32 career games. He completed 356-of-586 passes for 3,941 yards and 24 touchdowns. The Louisiana Tech product has a 60.8% career completion percentage.
He started the first four contests of 2005 completing 56-of-97 passes for 667 yards, five touchdowns and six interceptions. Following the loss to the Arizona Cardinals, Nolan demoted Rattay and went with first-round draft choice Alex Smith.
With Smith entrenched as the team’s starter and solid backups in Ken Dorsey and Cody Pickett, Nolan felt the swap with Tampa was favorable.
“Ken Dorsey and Cody Pickett are very capable young players who have worked extremely hard in the role of backup quarterback,” said Nolan. “I believe they’ll do a quality job for us, and given our injury situation in other areas, it opens up a roster spot for us and will allow us some flexibility in filling other positions.”
Dorsey, who played in eight games with seven starts in 2004, now moves into the backup role behind Smith.
”It is just one of those crazy things in this business where you never really know what is going to happen from day to day,” said Dorsey of his promotion. “You just have to work hard and continue to improve as an individual because you never know when your role is going to change.
Nolan said that Dorsey will now take all of the reps for the offensive scout team against the #1 defense. Although Dorsey has seen limited reps so far this season, he’s the last player to leave the field after every practice. Even after the receivers have gone in, Dorsey stays out on the field throwing into a net or working on foot work.
“You try to prepare the same no matter what your role is and I think that’s the way most guys are, especially in this organization,” said Dorsey. “I think those are the type of people this organization has tried to bring in, and we all know that we have to work and be ready and prepare as if we expect to play.”
Preparation will be slightly different for Smith, who counted on Rattay’s veteran guidance both in the film room and the field.
“He was the oldest guy in the room, and guy with the most experience,” said Smith. “He’d been around the longest out of all four quarterbacks and he was a guy whenever I had questions, I would go to him. So, it will be weird for me, but I’m excited for him. He’s going to a good situation and I think he’ll make things happen there.”
The 49ers will face their former offensive leader in two weeks when the 49ers host the Bucs at Monster Park.
“It’ll be extremely, extremely different,” admitted Smith. “It’ll be different to see him across the field because in my short time in the league, he’s been the guy I look up to the most.”
“Everybody really enjoyed Tim here and respected him tremendously here as a player and a person,” added Dorsey. “It’ll be different to see him across the sidelines from us, but that won’t be our focus. We need to focus on winning games and getting the season headed in the right direction.”
Nolan also announced that linebacker Saleem Rasheed, who moved into the starting lineup when Jamie Winborn went on injured reserve with a torn biceps last week, underwent arthroscopic surgery on his knee and is expected to be out 2-5 weeks. Rasheed suffered the injury early in practice on Monday.