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The 49ers wisely decided to stop pretending they might keep quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo for the 2022 season, opting instead to declare a de facto fire sale.
Now that the team is all-on on Trey Lance, they will settle on Garoppolo and hope that a trade opportunity will arise. If he doesn’t, they will definitely cut him before the first week, when his $24.2 million salary would otherwise be fully guaranteed as severance pay under the collective bargaining agreement.
Along the way, the 49ers plan to keep Garoppolo out of practice (and therefore out of preseason games). This will eliminate the risk of Garoppolo’s injury at the end of the season, which would also ensure his guaranteed payment.
“We have no plans to coach him with the team,” coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters on Tuesday. “We take it day by day and talk to him constantly and hopefully we can figure out what’s best for both of us.”
But what’s best for the team might not be what’s best for Garoppolo. As the 49ers wait for a trade to materialize, the clock keeps ticking. If Garoppolo is eventually cut as the regular season opener nears, Jimmy G may be SOL when it comes to finding another job. If his goal is to play this year, now is the time to put himself on the market.
On Tuesday, GM John Lynch was asked if Garoppolo had expressed a wish to be released.
“No, he didn’t,” Lynch said.
If Garoppolo made that request, it looks like the answer is no.
Shanahan said on Tuesday: “[You] I can’t just hand over one of the better quarterbacks in the league just to have him available to the world for no reason.
But eventually they will. The question is whether they are lucky because of another team’s bad luck with injuries.
There is another possible way. After the 49ers finally made it clear they’re not trying to get a draft pick for Garoppolo on Day 2, a team that has skipped trade talks could accept a flyer with a late-round offer. While the Garoppolo contract would also need to be renegotiated, it’s entirely possible that a team that wouldn’t otherwise have been interested might see an opportunity to bring Garoppolo in at a good time.
Shanahan expresses hope that the situation will resolve itself sooner or later, making it even clearer that the time has come to make an offer to the 49ers.
Aside from a quick trade, Garoppolo’s easiest move is to wait. But what if he’s willing to turn his “nice guy” reputation on its head and insists on being given a fair chance to train at boot camp and play preseason? At some point, the union could step in. But before that, Garoppolo would have to try to exacerbate the situation by pushing himself onto the field.