The first major offseason domino to fall for the 49ers is Jimmy Garoppolo. Much of their other business is predicated on trading Garoppolo and clearing the $24.1 million in cap space a trade would provide.
That money is key in any hope to re-sign key free agents like Laken Tomlinson, D.J. Jones or Arden Key, and to sign Nick Bosa and Deebo Samuel to the monster extensions they’re expected to receive.
But this week, ESPN’s Adam Schefter said it’s “not a lock” that the 49ers trade Garoppolo, despite the obvious necessity the team has to trade him and the explicit farewell he gave.
Not trading him doesn’t make much sense, and Tim Kawakami of The Athletic joined KNBR on Thursday to explain the situation. He believes the lack of logic actually has a logical explanation.
“I think the 49ers haven’t gotten the trade offer they want,” Kawakami said. “I don’t think there’s a great value for him.”
“People know exactly who Jimmy is. He’s an injury-prone 30-year-old who can win in the right conditions, but is limited in talent. And some coaches might want him, but they’re not going to go, ‘Here’s a [first-round pick]. Oh, let me let me give you two [first-round picks].’
“And that might be what the 49ers are running into. They like him; I think Kyle likes him more than anybody in the NFL likes him. But he had to replace him and now he wants a lot of picks back. They might be running into reality here and that could delay things.”
He doesn’t believe the 49ers can retain Garoppolo another season. Kawakami said that both sides stuck it out for one more year, with Garoppolo coming off well in the locker room and as a leader, which is how it worked last season. But in his view, trying that again is not tenable.
“That’s how that held,” Kawakami said. “How can you do that for another year? How can you possibly do that for another year? I just think they haven’t gotten what they want.”
Listen to the full interview below. You can listen to every KNBR interview on our podcast page at knbr.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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