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The San Francisco 49ers traded up on Friday for the third overall pick in the NFL Draft. They will be drafting a quarterback. They will also be retaining Jimmy Garoppolo, it seems, for at least the 2021 season. Or, at least that’s what they want teams to believe, and there’s good reason to believe them.
According to multiple reports, Garoppolo is still in the 49ers’ plans for this season, and they plan to hang onto him.
The #49ers plan to keep Jimmy G, believing they have a playoff-ready roster and he’s the one for it. We’ll see if teams can change their mind. https://t.co/SL5Skr0euA
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 26, 2021
General manager John Lynch told NFL Network’s Steve Wyche that the team called Garoppolo to keep him appraised and that he’s still in their plans.
The #49ers are keeping Jimmy Garoppolo, according to the team. @wyche89 says that John Lynch told him: "Yes we decided to go ahead and do this, once it was finalized the first thing we did was call Jimmy Garoppolo to let him know he's still in our plans."
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) March 26, 2021
If you’re confused, here’s why you shouldn’t be. Garoppolo, when healthy, is at least an average quarterback (which means sometimes he’s well above that average, and sometimes he dips below) who has been in the system for more than three years now. He didn’t carry the 49ers to a Super Bowl, but they almost won it with him.
The only reason to trade Garoppolo is if there is a cap crunch, which there is not, or if you still want to make a move for a free agent. San Francisco retained almost every key free agent they wanted to (except for Kendrick Bourne and likely Richard Sherman), while also adding key outside free agents like Alex Mack and Samson Ebukam.
At this point, their only true needs were slot receiver and a backup/future starting quarterback. There are other areas to improve depth (like at corner and edge), but nothing is dire.
That means San Francisco has no reason to trade Garoppolo right now unless the value is there. It is much more likely that they would do so next season, after a year of evaluating their soon-to-be rookie quarterback.
But, that doesn’t mean you should take what they’re saying at face value. Maybe they decide to go after one of the lingering free agents like Melvin Ingram, Jadeveon Clowney, A.J. Bouye or even Richard Sherman and decide to trade Garoppolo to sign them, or trade for another corner, receiver or edge rusher. The issue is most of the top-tier free agents are already off the board.
A move for the players above is not out of the question, but at this point, Garoppolo is something that is a known commodity when healthy, and if you move him, that necessitates a move for someone like Sam Darnold or Gardner Minshew, who would have to learn a new system.
Trading Garoppolo isn’t out of the question, but, oddly enough, he’s become the team’s insurance for their presumptive rookie quarterback and may still be this team’s starter in 2021.