Jimmy Garoppolo must make one of these 3 tough choices

The 49ers have reached something of an impasse with Jimmy Garoppolo, and he has to look at the reality of some difficult decisions this offseason.

In an ideal world, the San Francisco 49ers would have traded veteran quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo a long time ago, especially at the time when so many of the quarterback-needy teams across the league hadn’t settled on presumed options under center heading into 2022.

But the Niners were unable to strike a deal, perhaps a bit due to bad timing of what turned into a lucrative quarterback-trade market or possibly because of the shoulder injury Garoppolo suffered during the playoffs that required surgery.

Perhaps a bit of both.

At any rate, the market for Garoppolo’s services has all but completely dried up. Arguably the only teams potentially interested in Garoppolo are the Carolina Panthers and Seattle Seahawks, who for now, are poised to start Sam Darnold and Drew Lock under center, respectively. And with the 2022 NFL Draft fast approaching, the next plausible opportunity for San Francisco to attempt a Garoppolo trade, all the 30-year-old signal-caller can do is wait.

Let’s make one thing clear, though: San Francisco is going to start its top investment from last year’s NFL Draft, Trey Lance, at quarterback in 2022 barring some sort of complete meltdown during offseason workouts. And while Garoppolo’s injury and subsequent surgery will prevent him from throwing until training camp, he still has a number of options he can pursue.

They aren’t exactly desirable choices, though, aside from just “waiting it out.” Additionally, the 49ers don’t have to necessarily honor any one of Garoppolo’s requests either.

That said, here are three options in front of Jimmy G, and he’ll likely have to pick one of them in the near future.