49ers roster: Jimmy Garoppolo and his uncertain future
By Peter Panacy
In the process of being replaced by his current employer, 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo faces a lot of unknowns heading into the 2022 season.
Niner Noise has reached the point in our annual player-by-player look of the San Francisco 49ers’ 90-man offseason roster where we hit a pretty well-known figure, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
As per usual with these pieces, we break down why the player will improve, regress and what roster chances and/or impact he’ll have over the course of the upcoming season.
In Jimmy G’s case, things are a lot more complex.
We know the storyline well by now. The Niners drafted his heir apparent at No. 3 overall back in 2021, quarterback Trey Lance, who sat behind Garoppolo in the latter’s “swan song” year with San Francisco, which tried trading him during the offseason but couldn’t for a variety of reasons, the biggest of which was likely his offseason shoulder surgery stemming from an injury suffered in the playoffs.
And, so, Garoppolo remains stuck. For now.
| Year | Age | Tm | G | GS | QBrec | Cmp | Att | Cmp% | Yds | TD | TD% | Int | Int% | Y/A | Y/C | Rate | Sk | 4QC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 23 | NWE | 6 | 0 | 19 | 27 | 70.4 | 182 | 1 | 3.7 | 0 | 0 | 6.7 | 9.6 | 101.2 | 5 | ||
| 2015 | 24 | NWE | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 25 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.5 | 6.0 | 39.6 | 0 | ||
| 2016 | 25 | NWE | 6 | 2 | 2-0-0 | 43 | 63 | 68.3 | 502 | 4 | 6.3 | 0 | 0 | 8.0 | 11.7 | 113.3 | 3 | 1 |
| 2017 | 26 | SFO | 6 | 5 | 5-0-0 | 120 | 178 | 67.4 | 1560 | 7 | 3.9 | 5 | 2.8 | 8.8 | 13.0 | 96.2 | 8 | 2 |
| 2018 | 27 | SFO | 3 | 3 | 1-2-0 | 53 | 89 | 59.6 | 718 | 5 | 5.6 | 3 | 3.4 | 8.1 | 13.5 | 90.0 | 13 | |
| 2019 | 28 | SFO | 16 | 16 | 13-3-0 | 329 | 476 | 69.1 | 3978 | 27 | 5.7 | 13 | 2.7 | 8.4 | 12.1 | 102.0 | 36 | 4 |
| 2020 | 29 | SFO | 6 | 6 | 3-3-0 | 94 | 140 | 67.1 | 1096 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 3.6 | 7.8 | 11.7 | 92.4 | 11 | |
| 2021 | 30 | SFO | 15 | 15 | 9-6-0 | 301 | 441 | 68.3 | 3810 | 20 | 4.5 | 12 | 2.7 | 8.6 | 12.7 | 98.7 | 29 | 3 |
| Career | Career | 63 | 47 | 33-14-0 | 960 | 1418 | 67.7 | 11852 | 71 | 5 | 38 | 2.7 | 8.4 | 12.3 | 98.9 | 105 | 10 | |
| 5 yr | 5 yr | SFO | 46 | 45 | 31-14-0 | 897 | 1324 | 67.7 | 11162 | 66 | 5 | 38 | 2.9 | 8.4 | 12.4 | 98.3 | 97 | 9 |
| 3 yr | 3 yr | NWE | 17 | 2 | 2-0-0 | 63 | 94 | 67 | 690 | 5 | 5.3 | 0 | 0 | 7.3 | 11.0 | 106.2 | 8 | 1 |
Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com
Generated 6/7/2022.
Now 30 years old and widely viewed as a middle-of-the-road quarterback with an injury history, what lies ahead for Garoppolo is uncertain. The 49ers have already stated they aren’t going to simply give him away for nothing, but retaining the quarterback for his scheduled $27 million salary-cap hit for 2022 isn’t feasible either.
And ideally, the Niners would prefer to avoid the same quarterback controversy they had for the bulk of 2021, too.
So, instead of following our usual trend of evaluating why Garoppolo improves, regresses and what his expected role will be for the upcoming season, let’s break down why he stays on the roster, why he doesn’t and the likeliest of outcomes for him in 2022.