Kyle Shanahan opened the door this week for the possibility of Jimmy Garoppolo entering the 2022 season as the 49ers’ starting quarterback. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport shut that door with a report on Sunday morning.
According to Rapoport, the 49ers, unless they go to the Super Bowl, will trade Garoppolo this offseason and enter next year with Lance as their signal-caller.
“Absent a Super Bowl run, which at this point is still theoretically possible, this is the 49ers’ plan next season: start Trey Lance, trade Jimmy Garoppolo. Not a surprise there, they’ve been pretty up front about that,” Rapoport said Sunday on NFL GameDay Morning. “What Garoppolo is doing now is increasing the value of picks the 49ers get in a trade involving him, and they make it more likely that a place he wants to go would want to take him.”
It was always assumed that this would be Garoppolo’s last season as the 49ers’ quarterback, but Shanahan’s comments this week made it seem like the QB situation is more fluid, even heading into 2022.
“There’s a chance for anything, but I think we’ve made it pretty clear that Trey is our guy of the future, whenever that happens,” Shanahan said. “But it’s also nothing against Jimmy that we took Trey to be our guy of the future.”
Chatter about that possibility has also ramped up in the wake of Garoppolo’s vastly improved play. Garoppolo has been the best quarterback in the NFL since the 49ers’ Week 8 win over the Bears, according to Pro Football Focus.
Just a few weeks ago Garoppolo seemed nearly untradable. Now it seems like he could fetch a decent haul next offseason if his current play continues and he leads the 49ers to the playoffs.