3 reasons why SF 49ers move on from Jimmy Garoppolo
By Peter Panacy
No. 2: SF 49ers have extended or restructured Jimmy Garoppolo’s contract yet
One of the ways the Niners could have freed up cap space this offseason and into 2021 would have been either to extend Jimmy Garoppolo or at least restructure his contract.
A year ago, according to 49erscap.com’s Jason Hurley, San Francisco could have restructured a deal with three-plus voidable years in an attempt to get his base salary down to $820,000 by converting numbers into a signing bonus. That bonus could then be prorated over the remaining life of the contract, including those voidable years.
The problem, though, is it would financially link the SF 49ers to Garoppolo for the long run, essentially trading away immediate salary cap concerns for more concerns in two or three years.
If the Niners were committed to Garoppolo fully, they likely would have taken this route anyway, especially understanding how the market on good quarterbacks is only going to increase in the wake of the league developing its next cast of signal-caller stars.
To date, there hasn’t been any chatter about San Francisco wanting to either extend or restructure Garoppolo’s contract, putting more evidence on the side of Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch wanting to keep their options open.
That doesn’t exactly sound like a move built around trusting Garoppolo for the long run.