The 49ers remain stuck with Jimmy Garoppolo for now, meaning there’s still plenty of speculation about where he’ll play when the 2022 season rolls around.
The 2022 league new year is almost two months old, the NFL Draft is in the books and the upcoming regular-season schedule is now public knowledge.
And Jimmy Garoppolo remains a quarterback on the San Francisco 49ers roster.
The Niners have apparently tried moving him, opening up the door for second-year signal-caller Trey Lance to establish himself as the unchallenged No. 1 on the quarterbacking depth chart. Yet Garoppolo remains without a new team amid the crazy musical chairs that took place this offseason.
Perhaps it has to do with the $25.5 million post-trade salary Garoppolo would command. Maybe it’s his shoulder injury and subsequent surgery that turned off teams.
Either way, San Francisco is stuck with him. For now, at least.
The landscape can and will change between now and Week 1, of course, but let’s take a look at four teams that could still end up signing Garoppolo’s paychecks this upcoming season.
Jimmy Garoppolo employer No. 1: 49ers
Likely? No. Possible? Sure.
The 49ers have repeatedly said they’re not going to simply “give” Garoppolo away for next to nothing, which probably helps explain reports why they initially declined a second-round pick for him earlier this offseason when his value was apparently higher.
Currently, the Niners have less than $1 million in salary-cap space, meaning they don’t have the ability to sign their rookie draft class. Something has to give, and clearing Jimmy G’s salary is the easiest way to do it.
However, doing so via an outright release isn’t the only option.
San Francisco could, at least in theory, have Garoppolo accept a serious pay cut and likely a backup role to play behind Lance, costing a maximum of $1.4 million in dead money, as Jimmy G’s injury will prevent him from taking first-team reps during offseason workouts.
Lance will get those. But a cheaper Garoppolo in 2022 could easily be an insurance policy if Lance winds up flaming out early and/or not being ready to go.
Jimmy Garoppolo employer No. 2: Seahawks
Probably the only other 2022 outcome for Jimmy Garoppolo that seems less plausible than the 49ers retaining the quarterback is them looking to engineer a trade within the NFC West, sending Jimmy G off to the Seattle Seahawks.
Just ask Dave Mahler of Seattle’s KJR, as he joined The Krueg Show’s Larry Krueger, breaking down the possibility of Garoppolo heading north within the division:
Judging on that, it sure doesn’t seem likely.
Not out of the realm of possibility, though.
OK, so the Hawks wouldn’t be tripping over themselves to acquire Garoppolo from a Niners team looking to “jettison its trash,” and it would be even less feasible to see Seattle engineer some sort of trade for him either.
However, given the fact the Seahawks passed on a quarterback in the 2022 draft and are slated to roll out with either Geno Smith or Drew Lock as their starter this season, should San Francisco release Garoppolo outright, there’d be the chance of Seattle posting some interest if it didn’t have to give up anything in exchange.
This is far from a long-term answer, of course. But a run-first, focus-on-the-defense Hawks team would probably upgrade a modest bit with Jimmy G under center.
Jimmy Garoppolo employer No. 3: Texans
We’re getting to the teams that could stand a much stronger chance of engineering a move with the 49ers to acquire Jimmy Garoppolo, and the Houston Texans still have to be considered a viable option after passing on one of the relatively few reasonable options under center in the 2022 draft.
This means second-year quarterback Davis Mills is poised to start for head coach Lovie Smith this season, and that may either turn out to be a great decision, as the former Stanford standout was a notable draft riser a year ago and flashed some modest promise his rookie season. Or it might mean Houston is left flat after finally unloading fellow quarterback Deshaun Watson to the Cleveland Browns after he spent all of 2021 idle on the roster.
Read More: Jimmy Garoppolo might have to accept a backup role if traded
Aside from Mills, Houston has fellow signal-callers Kyle Allen, Jeff Driskel and Kevin Hogan on the depth chart. Not particularly impressive.
Either way, the Texans stand to improve at nearly every spot on their roster. And while Garoppolo wouldn’t give them much of any chance to even contend within an already unimpressive AFC South, it would at least make Houston a bit more interesting and competitive than it’s projected to be right now.
As would be the case with Seattle, acquiring Garoppolo wouldn’t be a long-term fix for the Texans whatsoever, but it would at least provide a bigger boost than Mills is likely to have.
Jimmy Garoppolo employer No. 4: Panthers
Perhaps the only legitimate destination for Jimmy Garoppolo in 2022 would be the Carolina Panthers, who were one of the many teams in on the Deshaun Watson sweepstakes but came away empty-handed, meaning they’re going to roll into the upcoming year with Sam Darnold as QB1.
That’s not exactly a recipe for on-the-hot-seat head coach Matt Rhule to keep his job.
Sure, Carolina added Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral in Round 3 of the draft, and one could almost make a strong case the Panthers would be wiser to turn to him if Darnold flames out, which wouldn’t be surprising. However, a collegiate scout told Niner Noise that Corral’s ceiling is no bigger than a high-quality backup and nothing more, meaning Corral isn’t exactly poised to give Carolina any edge in a fairly wide-open Wild Card race within the NFC.
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The Panthers were also reportedly interested in the quarterback Watson is replacing in Cleveland, Baker Mayfield, which could have a direct impact on Garoppolo’s future. But any smoke emanating from that possibility appears to have dissipated, meaning the Panthers’ search remains open.
Most likely, at least.
Yet Carolina has the cap space to absorb Garoppolo and the roster need.
It might not take much for the Panthers to acquire Garoppolo at this point in the offseason either, provided the Niners start to act a bit more out of desperation.