The ‘problem’ if 49ers win Super Bowl with Jimmy Garoppolo

What if the 49ers with the Super Bowl with Jimmy Garoppolo? Does he stay? While fans would love to have that kind of problem, it does raise a fair question.

It’ s a question all San Francisco 49ers fans hope needs answering at season’s end.

The standard answer to whether or not the Niners would face an issue if quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo wins a Super Bowl, of course, is “it’s a good problem to have.”

But the answer may require a little more thought, especially with the team trading two first-round NFL Draft picks, a third-, and swapping this year’s first-round picks with the Miami Dolphins to select North Dakota State’s Trey Lance at No. 3 overall to be the quarterback of the very near future.

While the plan seems to be for head coach Kyle Shanahan to develop Lance for a season and allow Jimmy G to play this year out, the possibility of Garoppolo leading San Francisco to a Lombardi Trophy could put a wrinkle in those plans.

It may not be as simple as allowing Garoppolo to move on after a Super Bowl win while allowing Lance to take over the team next season. Although these guys are professionals, if a quarterback leads his team to a Super Bowl, it would be very hard to replace him with an unproven young player and not have the team feel a sense of loyalty to the ousted signal-caller.

And, perhaps, rock the boat of a seemingly strong locker room.

All-Pro tight end George Kittle has repeatedly declared his loyalty to Jimmy G. And while he most likely would accept whatever guy Shanahan decides to go with, there may be trepidation in doing so.

It is a new era in the NFL, one in which players’ feelings, more so than ever before, get in the way of what is generally considered the business of the NFL.

One needs to look no further than the Houston Texans’ disgruntled quarterback, Deshaun Watson, the Seattle Seahawks’ Russell Wilson and the Green Bay Packers’ Aaron Rodgers situations as proof that the balance of power, while still in the owners’ favor rather than the players, is shifting more towards the middle.

While it may never reach the level of the current power moves played by today’s NBA players, the writing is on the wall that players are looking to have more input and influence on an organization’s direction.

And although Garoppolo does not have the resume Rogers, Wilson and, to a lesser extent, Watson have, if Jimmy G was to win a Super Bowl at the conclusion of the 2021 campaign, it could certainly give him more respect among players he goes to battle with every Sunday.

This is not to say Garoppolo would create an issue, but just by osmosis, the players may feel the organization is turning away from Jimmy G after garnering a Super Bowl championship for them, and it may not play out too well.

As stated before, players are still professionals, but it could potentially influence whether free agents want to go to an organization and play for them if they feel that the organization will not show loyalty to their quarterback even in the midst of a championship run.

The Packers’ Davante Adams’ opinion seems to bear this out, as he posted this cryptic tweet in regards to the Packers and Rodgers’ apparent rift:

It may be a lot to do about nothing once the season begins, but it also will be interesting to see how that situation plays out. It was enough of a situation for 49ers general manager John Lynch to reach out to the Packers about Rodgers’ availability the night before the draft.

Meanwhile, Garoppolo will be under center barring an injury or unforeseen circumstance come this September. Let’s just hope that this will be the season he stays healthy and leads the team to it’s sixth Super Bowl title. And while it may push back the time line for Lance’s NFL debut, the 49ers would certainly take this problem over many of the other ones that an organization may deal with.

The situation’s outcome either way would be one Niners fans could debate while celebrating the return to glory of one of the NFL’ s most storied franchises.