5 best overreactions to 49ers training camp after first week
By Peter Panacy
49ers training camp overreaction No. 4: Jimmy Garoppolo needs to stay
You know how this one is going to go.
Someone from the national media, and likely some local pundits and critics, will run with just a single report of Trey Lance having a bad day in camp and will then use it to fuel the argument that should have been dead long ago: The 49ers need to keep Jimmy Garoppolo around this season instead of trading him.
Never mind the fact the Niners have openly said Lance is the guy going forward and they’re also actively trying to find a trade partner who’d best suit both Garoppolo and San Francisco’s best interests.
Nearly every day since, head coach Kyle Shanahan has continued to tell reporters the team is actively trying to find an amicable situation that’ll work for Jimmy G’s side and the 49ers, too.
Sure, Lance will undergo some struggles this year. Those are to be expected. Yet the Niners can’t afford to play the quarterback-circus game as they did a year ago in the wake of drafting Lance in the first place, then let him sit behind Garoppolo for a full season, even though that didn’t completely remove questions about who’d be the starting signal-caller heading into 2022.
And, no, San Francisco isn’t going to keep Garoppolo as a high-priced backup to Lance over Sudfeld or even Purdy either.
No. 2 quarterbacks shouldn’t earn $24.2 million in base salary, so this notion is actually quite the overreaction.