49ers shouldn’t, wouldn’t move on from Jimmy Garoppolo
By Peter Panacy
Jimmy Garoppolo: Contract Numbers Look Better over Time
It’s understandable why some may have criticized the 49ers for dishing out that massive five-year, $137.5 million deal to Jimmy Garoppolo in 2018 after he only started seven regular-season games.
But Garoppolo’s record-setting deal only stayed atop all quarterbacks’ contracts for a short amount of time.
The Minnesota Vikings subsequently signed quarterback Kirk Cousins to a three-year, $84 million fully guaranteed contract, and the $28 million annual average for Cousins is $500,000 more than Garoppolo’s yearly average.
The Seattle Seahawks’ Russell Wilson, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger, the Los Angeles Rams’ Jared Goff, the Green Bay Packers’ Aaron Rodgers, the Philadelphia Eagles’ Carson Wentz, the Atlanta Falcons’ Matt Ryan and Indianapolis Colts’ Jacoby Brissett also all command average annual salaries higher than Garoppolo.
San Francisco inked Garoppolo to a deal that would look like a relative bargain not long after the deal was signed. And even if Garoppolo completely flames out in 2020, the Niners’ ability to move on is still there:
But that’s not likely to be the intention here. Rather it shows the 49ers, particularly chief contracts negotiator Paraag Marathe, has shown a knack for navigating this high-profile deals.
If anything, the question isn’t whether or not the Niners would move on from him to save money.
Rather it’s going to be if and when they elect to restructure and/or potentially extend Garoppolo to a longer contract, saving money in the immediate future and avoiding what could be an even larger contract when Garoppolo is poised to hit the open market in 2023.
Why would San Francisco do that? Glad you asked.