Will 49ers trade Jimmy Garoppolo before Browns move Baker Mayfield?

It’s a fair question to wonder: Will the 49ers move Jimmy Garoppolo before the Browns inevitably trade Baker Mayfield? Let’s take a look.

There are a lot of reasons why quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is still on the San Francisco 49ers roster despite widespread speculation the Niners would have moved on from him by now.

Partially, Garoppolo being a 30-year-old middle-of-the-pack signal-caller with a lengthy injury history doesn’t help, and neither does the fact his postseason shoulder injury and subsequent surgery acted as a deterrent for many of the teams that could have potentially inquired about a would-be trade.

What turned into a wild offseason-quarterback market also impacted Garoppolo’s trade-ability, too.

Blame the Houston Texans for trading quarterback Deshaun Watson to the Cleveland Browns for part of this as well. With the Browns, Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers all targeting Watson, a would-be Garoppolo trade had to sit idle until the notably better-performing Watson was ultimately dealt.

All bad timing for San Francisco.

Old news now, but with the Browns finally landing Watson, they now have the unenviable task of trying to move quarterback Baker Mayfield, who has become expendable entering 2022.

So, who gets moved first, Jimmy G or Mayfield?

Who gets traded first, Jimmy Garoppolo or Baker Mayfield?

One might make the argument the only teams left in the trade market for a quarterback right now are the Panthers and the Seattle Seahawks. Both Mayfield and Garoppolo have their on-field limitations, and neither the Panthers nor the Hawks would want to give up anything substantial for either quarterback.

As such, both quarterbacks are invariably bound together in that regard.

Currently, the oddsmakers over at WynnBET don’t have betting odds for which quarterback ultimately gets dealt first.

However, BetSided’s Matt De Saro created his own odds for who winds up being dealt first, and it’s not Garoppolo:

• Baker Mayfield: -500
• Jimmy Garoppolo: +350

The rationale is pretty straightforward:

"The 49ers seem less committed to getting rid of Garoppolo than the Browns are to unloading Mayfield. While everyone expects the move to happen, there has been a lot of faffing about. Hell, the team still hasn’t even announced who their planned starter will be in 2022. That is because nobody knows how this is going to play out with the 49ers and Jimmy G."

There are far more unknowns with the Niners’ future under center regarding second-year quarterback Trey Lance than with Mayfield’s replacement, Watson. And De Saro’s comments jive with what general manager John Lynch said earlier this offseason, specifically about not cutting Garoppolo outright if no trade materializes.

Simply put, Cleveland is under much more pressure to trade Mayfield than San Francisco is to trade Garoppolo.

And it wouldn’t be shocking at all if the 49ers simply want to wait and see what happens with Mayfield first before trying again to trade Garoppolo.