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Within the next 48 hours, the San Francisco 49ers are going to have what they hope to be a franchise quarterback to lead the organization moving forward. Said franchise quarterback is not going to be Jimmy Garoppolo.
Pretty much controlling the news cycle over the past month after trading up to No. 3 in the 2021 NFL Draft, it appears that the 49ers’ brass is loving its time in the limelight.
That could now potentially include pulling off a Garoppolo trade before or during the three-day event in Cleveland starting on Thursday.
Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports reported on Tuesday that there’s a strong expectation around NFL circles that Garoppolo is traded here within the next few days.
“Very strong expectation among other GM’s and throughout the industry that the 49ers will make major effort to move Jimmy Garoppolo before or during the draft,” La Canfora reported. “Timing isn’t great with 5 QBs about to go in 1st round, but Jimmy G’s future there now seen as bleak.”
The latter part of this report is the biggest issue for the San Francisco 49ers. They might have overplayed their hand in initially demanding a first-round pick for the injury-plagued Garoppolo. Now that general manager John Lynch and Co. have seemingly lowered their asking price for the Super Bowl quarterback, the market might have thinned out.
All of this comes one day after San Francisco held a pre-draft press conference with Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan answering questions from the media. In said Q&A, Shanahan wouldn’t guarantee that Garoppolo would be on the roster (or alive) come Sunday.
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This is all complicated by the fact that no one knows who the 49ers are selecting at three Thursday evening in Cleveland. Initially, they were linked to Alabama’s Mac Jones before the betting line started to favor Justin Fields from Ohio State. More recently, North Dakota State product Trey Lance has been the craze in Northern California with national media reports indicating that Fields is out of the mix.
Caught up yet?
Pure conjecture here, but the 49ers might be more willing to move off Garoppolo if they opt for a more pro-ready quarterback in Fields or Jones. As for Lance, he’s seen as more of a project given that the quarterback played against lesser competition in college and only appeared in one game this past season.
As for a potential Garoppolo trade, a second-round pick and change might now be the going rate. It all depends on whether teams like the Chicago Bears and Denver Broncos show interest. If not, the New England Patriots bidding against themselves for their former backup would create an even weaker market for Garoppolo.
The 29-year-old quarterback has missed 23 of a possible 48 games over the past three seasons. The one year in which he stayed healthy back in 2019, Garoppolo threw for nearly 4,000 yards with 27 touchdowns and 13 interceptions en route to leading the San Francisco 49ers to a shocking Super Bowl appearance.