The Seahawks had one last long shot at a quarterback upgrade before the 2022 season began. The 49ers weren’t about to do them any favors, though. Instead of releasing Jimmy Garoppolo and risking him signing with Seattle, the Niners have radically restructured his contract.
The new deal makes Garoppolo the league’s highest-paid backup and gives San Francisco a massive amount of salary cap relief in the process.
Depending on the exact structure, Jimmy Garoppolo's restructured contract should lower his 2022 cap number from $26.95 million to around $8.5M — some much-needed breathing room for the #49ers, who now have Garoppolo and Trey Lance together in the QB room again.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) August 29, 2022
While he’s clearly now the No. 2 guy behind Trey Lance, Garoppolo has a chance to make up to $10 million more if he hits all his incentives.
The #49ers lowered Jimmy Garoppolo's base salary to $6.5M fully guaranteed while giving him a chance to make nearly $10M more in incentives if he's starting. A solid solution. https://t.co/la4T5rNpir
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 29, 2022
There were rumors that the Seahawks were still very-much interested in signing Garoppolo if he’d been released. Supposedly the two teams engaged in some late trade talks but they never went anywhere.
Garoppolo may still be of interest to the Seahawks in 2023. For now, it’ll be Geno Smith starting at QB Week 1 with Drew Lock backing him up.
