An offseason curveball buckled the 49ers’ offseason plans at quarterback. After they lost the NFC championship game their plan was clear: they were going to trade Jimmy Garoppolo, and they’d have several suitors in the trade market. That path has all gone out the window now after a dramatic shift in the QB landscape and offseason shoulder surgery for Garoppolo. While the outcome of Garoppolo’s offseason is still unknown, we have a prediction.
General manager John Lynch, head coach Kyle Shanahan and team CEO Jed York have all said the club is open to bringing Garoppolo back for training camp and possibly going into the year with him and his $26.95 million cap hit on the roster.
They may all be open to that, but it’s hard to envision them going that route. So how might this play out?
Garoppolo isn’t going to randomly be cut. There’s not enough financial incentive to do that in April. San Francisco will keep him on the roster at least through the offseason program which ends June 16. He won’t be able to participate in those workouts since he is on track to get back to throwing in late June or early July.
That’s the point in time that ultimately matters. Once Garoppolo is able to get in front of teams and throw, it may rekindle any trade interest there might’ve been. Once the 49ers have a deal in place they’ll more than likely pull the trigger on a trade.
If that trade interest doesn’t return, San Francisco at that point probably outright releases Garoppolo to give him a chance to catch on with a team before training camp.
There’s a caveat here though. Lance will get all the OTA reps under center. That’ll give the 49ers coaching staff a chance to evaluate the second-year signal caller. If he struggles and looks like he needs more non-game work, then San Francisco perhaps keeps Garoppolo through camp and has them battle it out to see who gives them the better chance to win in 2022.
Assuming Lance improves and the coaching staff deems him ready to start, our prediction is Garoppolo will either be traded or released as soon as he’s able to throw again. The 49ers will want to do right by him, which means giving him the best chance to go somewhere to compete for a job this year.
