Trey Lance injury now justifies 49ers keeping Jimmy Garoppolo

A controversial move at the time, the 49ers deciding to hold onto Jimmy Garoppolo for 2022 ultimately paid off in the wake of Trey Lance’s season-ending ankle injury.

The San Francisco 49ers spent the bulk of the 2022 offseason trying to trade veteran quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.

Ultimately, they elected to retain him on a reworked contract that kept him in place as a primary backup to the presumed franchise starter going forward, Trey Lance.

A controversial move at the time? Sure. Not only did the Niners want to move on from the media circus that surrounded the two signal-callers following Lance’s high-profile drafting at No. 3 overall back in 2021, but in the wake of an offseason where Garoppolo was first sidelined in the wake of shoulder surgery and then not partaking in either training camp practices or preseason games, the proverbial “writing on the wall” was there.

Until it wasn’t.

Lance, of course, suffered a season-ending broken ankle towards the end of the second quarter during what turned into San Francisco’s 27-7 Week 2 home victory over the Seattle Seahawks. Garoppolo entered in relief, was responsible for two touchdowns (one passing and another rushing) and will now reclaim the starting job he relinquished to Lance earlier this offseason.

Regardless of both fans and analysts’ reactions to the 49ers’ initial decision to keep Garoppolo into 2022, it’s safe to say that choice ultimately was the correct move.

Even if it’s disastrous for Lance and his future.

Side note from the author

I do have to say, I picked a crazy week to return to the fray after a four-week break while being out on paternal leave.

Both mom and baby are doing well, and I’ve happily joined the so-called “no sleep club” where a mere five hours of uninterrupted sleep is worth a week’s paycheck in itself.

Big thanks to our team here at Niner Noise and the greater FanSided group of NFL writers who pitched in during my absence.

49ers news from around FanSided

Stacking the Box column for Monday, Sept. 19 — Matt Verderame

"The Niners will say all the right things. Stuff about believing in Garoppolo and knowing what he can do. But that’s nonsense. If they believed in the veteran, they wouldn’t have handed the job to Lance this spring, or traded three first-round picks to acquire him in 2021. San Francisco believes its potential is capped by Garoppolo, and while the 49ers have reached two NFC Championship Games over the past three years with him, it’s a hard notion to argue."

49ers fans, media lament Trey Lance’s gruesome injury — Alicia de Artola

"Anyone who watched the replay of the incident could see immediately that this wasn’t the kind of injury Lance would have any chance of coming back from soon. The 49ers fanbase was crushed. Afterall, many of them saw him as the next Josh Allen."

49ers news from around the rest of the NFL world

Some Niners players relieved Jimmy Garoppolo is taking over for injured Trey Lance — Michael Silver, San Francisco Chronicle

"[Something] several players and coaches enunciated privately in the wake of Sunday’s game — the 49ers are a better team right now with Garoppolo at quarterback than they were with Lance.As two of these realists told me after the game, “I can’t say it, but you can.”So I will: For all of Lance’s potential, coach Kyle Shanahan’s plan to have the raw second-year player learn on the job while quarterbacking a team built to win now was not universally acclaimed inside the locker room. Garoppolo, 35-16 as a Niners starter, inspires more hope, at least in the short term."

Kyle Shanahan got snippy with media in wake of Trey Lance injury — Dennis Young, SF Gate

"“Do you guys watch other teams in this league? Buffalo does it all the time, with their quarterback,” Shanahan said about Josh Allen. “It’s a pretty normal play. It’s part of football, it’s unfortunate that he hurt his ankle on it. Very normal play. You guys should watch some other people,” he huffed.But as many have pointed out, Allen is significantly bigger and stronger than Lance, and anyway, Lance is running at about double the rate that Allen did at his peak. The only quarterback used in a similar fashion in recent years is Lamar Jackson."

Jimmy Garoppolo bonuses revealed after Trey Lance injury — Timothy Rapp, Bleacher Report

"When Jimmy Garoppolo restructured his deal with the San Francisco 49ers in late August, it included bonuses that could increase his earnings from a base salary of $6.5 million to a total of $16 million."

Week 2 overreactions and reality checks — Jeff Kerr, CBS Sports

"Overreaction or reality: RealityThis is an easy one, given the success Garoppolo has had with 49ers — even though he was the quarterback no one wanted when San Francisco named Trey Lance the starting quarterback. With Lance out for the season, this team belongs to Garoppolo in what is expected to be his final season in San Francisco."