49ers news: 5 possible trade partners for Jimmy Garoppolo
By Peter Panacy
It’s anyone’s guess whether or not the 49ers try moving Jimmy Garoppolo by the 2021 NFL trade deadline, but these partners could make some sense.
Look, your guess is as good as ours when it comes to figuring out whether or not the San Francisco 49ers commit fully to rookie quarterback Trey Lance for the rest of 2021.
And the same applies to whether or not head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch try moving the signal-caller Lance will eventually replace at some point, Jimmy Garoppolo, by this year’s NFL trade deadline, which hits at 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 2.
Despite the fact Shanahan made every attempt to find a replacement for Garoppolo during the offseason, the head coach has continuously stuck by his veteran, insisting there’s no competition between Garoppolo and Lance, and that Jimmy G is the entrenched starter. Even after Lance made his inaugural NFL start in Week 5 in the wake of a Garoppolo calf injury.
Truth from Shanahan? A possible smokescreen to boost Garoppolo’s trade value? No one truly knows.
Yet the Niners would ideally like to get something, anything in a would-be trade for Garoppolo’s services, and getting out from under his current contract sooner than later ($2.8 million in dead money and an $800,000 per-game roster bonus) surely would help matters a lot, financially speaking.
A would-be trade takes two teams, though, and it’ll certainly be challenging for a lot of quarterback-needy teams to fork up the necessary cap space.
But if San Francisco is adamant about trying to get something in return for Garoppolo’s services, these five trade partners would make some sense.