5 questions SF 49ers must answer before 2021 NFL Draft

No. 1: What do the SF 49ers decide to do with Jimmy Garoppolo?

No player on the Niners roster has drawn more speculation about his future than quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.

After missing all but six games with high-ankle sprains last season, Garoppolo’s hold on his current job is questionable. Sure, Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch have remained openly committed to Garoppolo as their guy in 2021. But the fact San Francisco hasn’t restructured or extended Jimmy G in a would-be cap-increasing move is just one of many pieces of evidence the front office isn’t overly committed to him.

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Then there are the financials, and those are important.

Most of the previous roster questions could be solved if the SF 49ers indeed move on. Garoppolo is set to earn $26.6 million in 2021, and one has to admit no other team would give him that kind of money if he was a free agent this offseason. If cut or traded, however, the Niners would free up $24.1 million in cap space.

Yet that would open up a sizable void under center, obviously, and it would likely put Shanahan and Lynch at least one more year away from legitimately competing for a Super Bowl.

Especially if they then use a top pick in the NFL Draft on a quarterback.

There are other options, yes, such as a blockbuster offseason trade for a star quarterback (i.e. the Houston Texans’ Deshaun Watson). But before San Francisco could even fathom that, it would have to make that final determination whether or not Jimmy G is going to be the guy for the immediate and potentially long-term future.