San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch mentioned the team is working hard to get quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo signed to a long-term deal. But why has it taken so long?
This was going to be one of the problems the San Francisco 49ers faced when they traded for quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo just prior to the 2017 NFL trade deadline.
What to do about a new contract?
Garoppolo is a pending free agent in 2018. And while the Niners have the fallback option of placing the franchise tag if a deal isn’t worked out, one can at least wonder why it’s taken so long to ink the promising QB to a long-term deal.
49ers general manager John Lynch explained to NFL Network’s Alex Flanagan, live at the 2018 Senior Bowl, the organization is “working hard towards” getting a deal done.
You can check out the interview below:
So what’s taking so long?
Sure, this might be a bit of impatience talking. But the weeks and days are counting down to the March 6 deadline to ink a new deal. If not, the franchise tag applies, at least extending negotiations until July 16 at the latest. If no deal is reached, Garoppolo will play on a one-year contract with no ability to renegotiate until after the 2018 season.
A new contract between now and then would solve all that. In the meantime, though, let’s try to figure out the reasons behind the delays.
Argument from the 49ers Camp
I’m not an NFL contract-negotiating expert, although I do understand how NFL salaries, signing bonuses, cap hits and financial impacts go, relatively well.
San Francisco 49ers
But I’ve been in contract negotiations representing other businesses too. In a funny way, your goal is to downsize your counterpart as much as possible without letting that entity feel is if it’s getting “screwed.”
The Niners don’t want to offer an insulting deal. But they’ll want to stick to smart business practices too.
There are plenty of reasons why the 49ers don’t want to hand off a blank check to Jimmy Garoppolo just yet. After all, he has just seven starts under his belt — five with the Niners — which would make his sample size by far the lowest out of any NFL quarterback signing what looks to be a deal in the range of five years, $125 million, per former NFL agent Joel Corry (h/t Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area).
Garoppolo’s seven touchdowns against five interceptions over those five starts, plus one drive in Week 12, are another factor working in San Francisco’s favor. And there’s the analysis on Garoppolo’s deep ball, or lack thereof, as broken down by Pro Football Focus.
Despite all the promise Garoppolo demonstrated over his short time with the Niners in 2017, this is still a tough decision to reach.
Especially if the organization is considering “handing over the keys” to a player with such limited playing time.
Argument from the Jimmy Garoppolo Camp
The 49ers had one win in 2017 before Jimmy Garoppolo took over starting duties. They’re undefeated since.
If there’s a stronger argument out there, I’d like to hear it. Garoppolo proved to be a difference maker for San Francisco. Pair that with the limited knowledge he had of head coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense, and it’s pretty easy to see why his projected ceiling is so high in 2018.
Garoppolo’s agent, Don Yee, isn’t going to ask for the kind of money quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers or Kirk Cousins are going to get. Rather, Joel Corry suggested it’s going to be in the neighborhood of Oakland Raiders’ QB Derek Carr’s five-year, $125 million deal.
The reason? Any contract signed now is going to be outdated within a year. Perhaps in less time. And if Garoppolo signs a team-friendly deal, market-wise, that contract will be obsolete by the end of 2018.
Especially coming from a team boasting the league’s most salary cap space this offseason.
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Using the ESPN Report on Jimmy Garoppolo, Bill Belichick and the Patriots as Evidence
There’s another viewpoint to consider here.
Seth Wickersham’s ESPN report on the apparent dysfunction within the New England Patriots, of which Garoppolo was a key figure, sheds some light on what might happen between Garoppolo and the 49ers this offseason.
Here’s the kicker:
"The Patriots repeatedly offered Garoppolo four-year contract extensions, in the $17 million to $18 million range annually that would go higher if and when he succeeded [Tom] Brady. Garoppolo and Yee rejected the offers out of hand, for reasons that remain unclear, and the Patriots knew they couldn’t make any promises to Garoppolo about the timing of a transition at quarterback without it getting back to Brady."
Yee, who also represents Brady, surely didn’t need to play into head coach Bill Belichick’s hopes of someday replacing the future Hall of Famer with Garoppolo. Not from a financial standpoint anyway, especially when the latter was in such high demand last offseason.
Still, that’s a tremendously high amount of money for a backup, even a starter with limited experience.
At the same time, Brady isn’t making top-tier quarterback money, even though he’s the best signal-caller in the game, and with little argument. I’ve also read Yee negotiated Brady’s deal this way to give the Patriots flexibility in signing and retaining other players to help the team win (forgive me, as I forget where I read that, but I assure you I did).
Perhaps Yee is willing to do the same with San Francisco, but the Niners’ current cap space doesn’t present that as an issue.
So why not ask for the roof?
Predicting Why It’s Taking So Long Between the 49ers and Jimmy Garoppolo
With little insider information available, and no comments aside from John Lynch’s “we’re working hard at it” statements, we’re left to speculate what’s holding up a deal between the 49ers and Jimmy Garoppolo.
The mentioned negotiation points certainly are involved. But what else?
Here’s another thought. There’s going to be a lot of quarterback movement this offseason. Who knows whether or not the Washington Redskins tag Kirk Cousins for a third time. Silly if they do, especially at $34 million for 2018.
Cousins could be on the market. So might Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints, also a free agent to be. The Minnesota Vikings face free-agent decisions with quarterbacks Case Keenum, Teddy Bridgewater and Sam Bradford too.
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Don’t forget renegotiations/extensions with Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan either. And we didn’t even mention those coming out in the 2018 NFL Draft.
The point is, the Niners have some wiggle room and, more importantly, waiting time right now. Remember that whole part about quarterback contracts being part of a market value? An educated guess would state Lynch and the 49ers are waiting for that market to pan out this offseason first before committing to a new deal.
Similarly, Don Yee and Garoppolo wouldn’t be in a rush until other contracts for other quarterbacks have been finalized.
It wouldn’t be a shock at all to see Garoppolo hit with the franchise tag on, or before, March 6. This would give San Francisco over four months to let the market settle before hitting the contract-negotiation deadline of July 16.
Next: 49ers' best option for Jimmy Garoppolo's 2018 contract
So if you’re sweating out the announcement of the deal, look for it to take place in that timespan.