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As the 49ers season ended, it seemed a matter of when the team would trade quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
But then Garoppolo was operated on the throwing arm. This is a complicated issue for San Francisco.
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan admitted at Tuesday’s annual league meeting that Garoppolo’s shoulder surgery has made things “a little bit more difficult” for the team when it comes to Garoppolo’s trade market. However, the club still plan to maximize Garoppolo’s value.
“Jimmy’s fine,” Shanahan said. “Every time someone has surgery, especially throwing arm surgery, teams get a little more nervous about what they want to offer and things like that. So I think that put it on hold. And we agree with that. We went through the free agent phase so we had to make some adjustments and do things like that, but we have him on the books now and we’ll keep it that way until something else can improve us.
Shanahan said he sees a scenario where Garoppolo is on the team’s roster in 2022. But that doesn’t seem very likely as the team is poised to take on Trey Lance, last year’s No. 3 overall.
“That’s why we looked into trading Jimmy, because obviously we think Trey can be a starter,” Shanahan said. “And we are ready for that. But if we have no other way to upgrade our team, we don’t get rid of a good quarterback just because we have other quarterbacks on the roster.
“We know we all have lads capable of starting – and Jimmy has done a great job for us. We brought Trey here to eventually be. And I think that will be sooner or later but Jimmy is going to have surgery and we can’t improve our team by getting some good picks until people are comfortable with that, I’m okay with that. We’re not getting rid of him just to get rid of him. Jimmy is a good player that we all like as a person and as a teammate and we’ll see what helps the Niners the most.
If Garoppolo is still on the roster when training camp begins, Shanahan expects the quarterback to be on the team. With his operation, Garoppolo will hardly be able to throw anyway. Should that happen, Shanahan didn’t say there would be a QB contest. And the team won’t have to take care of that until the end of July.
But because Garoppolo is under contract, Shanahan claimed the 49ers won’t just make a move that doesn’t benefit the team.
“We’re willing to do anything — the best we can do for the Niners,” Shanahan said. “The good thing is that we don’t have to decide today. We’re trying to figure out what’s best for the Niners, and having a good quarterback like Jimmy isn’t a bad thing. Being able to improve our roster through draft picks is a really good thing. What is the schedule for this? It is different with an operation. So that’s what we’re all dealing with. It really is as simple as it is.”