5 likely destinations for Jimmy Garoppolo if SF 49ers move on
By Peter Panacy
Jimmy Garoppolo Destination No. 2: Chicago Bears
Watching the Chicago Bears offense this season has been tough. Awfully tough.
Despite the Bears’ 5-3 record and current second-place positioning in the NFC North, head coach Matt Nagy’s offense in the bottom five in both points scored and yards gained halfway through the season. While Chicago’s run game has been abysmal, the pass offense hasn’t been much better, averaging a mere 5.3 yards per attempt — 28th in the league.
Quarterback Mitchell Trubisky? No. Quarterback Nick Foles? No. Those two don’t seem to be the answer, and it’s all but guaranteed Trubisky, the player the Bears moved up in a deal with the SF 49ers to draft in 2017, is gone as a free agent next year.
Foles, meanwhile, has two more years left on his $24 million deal, and Chicago will be hard-pressed to move on from it next season. And with only $2-plus million in available cap space for next year, there wouldn’t be an easy route to bring aboard Jimmy Garoppolo without some serious altering of the current roster.
But that kind of altering might just be what Nagy needs to retain his job this offseason, and Garoppolo would likely be the most exciting thing under center since the 2017 hype surrounding Trubisky.
Plus, the added measure, Garoppolo is from the Chicago area and still has plenty of family there, making some sort of homecoming appear quite natural.