4 Jimmy Garoppolo suitors after Baker Mayfield trade to Panthers

Jimmy Garoppolo trade suitor No. 2: Houston Texans

A former Patriots executive, now-Houston Texans general manager Nick Caserio, also has ties to Jimmy Garoppolo, and we haven’t wholly been able to cross off the Texans as a potential trade partner for Jimmy G.

For good reason, too, as Houston appears fully poised to let second-year signal-caller Davis Mills give it his best shot in 2022 amid what’ll likely be a lengthy rebuild for the Texans.

Nothing wrong with that approach, but it might not hurt entirely for Houston to have some sort of competition for this job, or at the very least, a veteran mentor for the former Stanford quarterback.

Again, as will be the trend for any presumed trade for Garoppolo from this point onward, the Niners aren’t going to get much in return in the way of compensation. And with just over $9 million in salary-cap space, Houston would either need to ask San Francisco to pay a portion of the salary, have Garoppolo take a pay cut or engineer some notable roster jockeying to fit in the financials.

Any one of these X-factors could be an obstacle, but there’s still a remote chance the Texans view Garoppolo as an upgrade over Mills, prompting a slightly better chance to at least be competitive in a relatively weak AFC South this season.