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This morning, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio broke down the San Francisco 49ers’ options with their veteran quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo. In the breakdown, Florio speculated that the current conundrum could force the Bay Area team to do the unthinkable — keep Garoppolo in 2022.
“They could even repeat his deal to turn some of the money he’s supposed to make into incentives based on playtime and/or performance,” Florio wrote. “Let him line up. If he’s better than Lance, let him play.”
However, Florio was not finished. He published a second article that looked at a different one of the three possible outcomes. Obviously, the chances of the 49ers landing the catch they hoped to acquire through a trade have dwindled greatly. While general manager John Lynch has stated the team is willing to keep Garoppolo and last year’s No. 3 Trey Lance on the squad should the need arise, it’s likely a last-ditch option.
Garoppolo is expected to count nearly $27 million towards the salary cap in 2022. So if Lance is the clear starter from now on, there’s not much point in keeping the experienced passer on the list at this price point.
Florio adds that Garoppolo’s recent shoulder surgery, which will keep him from shooting for any team until just before training camp, caught the 49ers by surprise.
Florio wrote, “Throw in the fact that Garoppolo was operated without consulting the 49ers, and it makes any team that would otherwise be interested in Garoppolo very suspicious.”
A source told Florio the shoulder surgery kept several potentially interested teams away. Now the list of teams needing quarterbacks has narrowed down to a point where a trade seems unlikely thanks to Garoppolo’s hefty salary and the fact that he’s not in good health.
“The most likely outcome, the source says, is that the 49ers will have to cut him,” Florio wrote. “With no salary guaranteed by Garoppolo until the eve of week one, the 49ers can wait. But you won’t get cap relief without trimming it. And because he’s in the last year of his contract, a cut would leave him with just $1.4 million in dead money — and it would instantly create more than $25 million in cap space.
With the initial expectation that things could be settled by the start of the new league year on March 16, it doesn’t look like the Garoppolo story is going away any time soon.
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