49ers have 3 remaining options with Jimmy Garoppolo still on roster
By Peter Panacy
Option No. 2: 49ers can wait to see if Jimmy Garoppolo market picks up again
The quarterback market is a fluctuating, hard-to-predict kind of thing. And just because the market on Jimmy Garoppolo is drying up now, it doesn’t mean the same will be the case between the NFL Draft and the 2022 regular season.
The 2022 draft doesn’t have a lot of viable quarterbacking options, at least few who’d realistically be considered day-one plug-and-play starters. Any selected are probably going to teams who already have a QB1 in place right now, taking a Trey Lance-like approach for 2022.
Yet teams will miss out on their quarterback targets in the draft, and things also get plenty weird towards training camp, too. Injuries to starters take place, rookies are deemed nowhere near ready, etc.
And that’s where Garoppolo’s market could heat back up again.
As a reference, the 2016 Minnesota Vikings lost quarterback Teddy Bridgewater to a serious knee injury during camp, prompting them to trade a first-round pick to the Philadelphia Eagles for soon-to-be castoff quarterback Sam Bradford, who had been effectively replaced on the depth chart by fellow QB Nick Foles.
Philly had to exercise patience in moving Bradford. And while it’s never a wise ploy to hope and wait for another quarterback to suffer a serious injury or setback, that might be precisely what San Francisco could hope for.