Niner Noise
FanSided

San Francisco 49ers: 3 best player contracts entering 2020

By Peter Panacy

Tight end George Kittle #85 of the San Francisco 49ers. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Tight end George Kittle #85 of the San Francisco 49ers. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) /
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Jimmy Garoppolo, 49ers
Jimmy Garoppolo #10 of the San Francisco 49ers (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) /

No. 3: 49ers Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo

Average Per Year: $27,500,000

From a sheer dollar amount, it’d be hard to consider Jimmy Garoppolo’s contract as one with the greatest amount of value for San Francisco. After all, his average annual salary of $27.5 million is tops on the team.

Back when Garoppolo signed his then-record-breaking deal early in 2018, it wasn’t hard to be shocked. Garoppolo had only started seven games by that point.

Yet it didn’t take long for Garoppolo’s five-year, $137.5 million deal to be eclipsed by other players, both playing above Jimmy G’s level and below it:

  1. Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs — $45,000,000 APY
  2. Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks — $35,000,000 APY
  3. Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers — $34,000,000 APY
  4. Jared Goff, Los Angeles Rams — $33,500,000 APY
  5. Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers — $33,500,000 APY
  6. Kirk Cousins, Minnesota Vikings — $33,000,000 APY
  7. Carson Wentz, Philadelphia Eagles — $32,000,000 APY
  8. Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys — $31,409,000 APY
  9. Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcons — $30,000,000 APY
  10. Ryan Tannehill, Tennessee Titans — $29,500,000 APY
  11. Jacoby Brissett, Indianapolis Colts — $27,975,000 APY
  12. Jimmy Garoppolo, San Francisco 49ers — $27,500,000 APY

Paraag Marathe and Co. have proven to be excellent predicting where the market is going, not where it is. And by the level of contracts dished out to quarterbacks, both good and elite-level signal-callers, Jimmy G’s deal is looking more and more like a steal.

But what makes this deal stand out over the total value is the fact the 49ers can get out from under it relatively easily. Should they decide so in 2021, it would cost just $2.8 million in dead money with $24.1 million in cap savings. The dead-money hit in 2022 is half of what it is in 2021, too.

Paid quarterbacks are expensive. There isn’t getting around that. Yet San Francisco engineered Garoppolo’s contract about as well as physically possible, putting this deal squarely on the list at No. 3.