San Francisco 49ers starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo has his team in playoff positioning following an ugly 3-5 start to the seaseon.
When the 49ers were at their lowest following a Week 9 loss to the Kyler Murray-less Arizona Cardinals, there was growing chatter that Garoppolo would be replaced by rookie No. 3 pick Trey Lance.
Despite San Francisco’s recent run of success, that has now been taking to a whole new level. According to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport, the 49ers plan to trade Jimmy Garoppolo this coming off-season and install Lance as their starting quarterback as a sophomore.
“Absent a Super Bowl run, which at this point is still theoretically possible, this is the 49ers’ plan next season: start Trey Lance, trade Jimmy Garoppolo. Not a surprise there, they’ve been pretty up front about that,” Rapoport reported Sunday morning. “What Garoppolo is doing now is increasing the value of picks the 49ers get in a trade involving him, and they make it more likely that a place he wants to go would want to take him.”
Garoppolo entered Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings having completed 67% of his passes for 2,112 yards with 12 touchdowns against five interceptions in nine starts. Over the course of his past three starts, Garoppolo has thrown six touchdowns and just one interception.
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Trey Lance to replace Jimmy Garoppolo in San Francisco
This report can’t be seen as breaking news. San Francisco exhausted two future first-round picks and change to move up to the third pick in the 2021 NFL Draft — ultimately opting to select Lance.
The North Dakota State product is being brought a long slowly given that he played against inferior competition in college and didn’t suit up during the 2020 season due to the FCS campaign being moved to the spring over COVID-19. He’s a project.
As for Garoppolo, there’s no telling whether a market exists for his services on the trade block. The 30-year-old signal caller is slated to count $27 million against the cap in 2022, $24.2 of which an acquiring team will be on the hook for. He’s a middle of the road starting quarterback in today’s NFL landscape.
With that said, the former New England Patriots second-round pick has posted a spectacular 29-12 record as a starting quarterback in the NFL.