National Football League

Jimmy Garoppolo is still with 49ers — will they keep him?

Published Mar. 28, 2022 8:12 p.m. ET

It's been pretty evident that the San Francisco 49ers are going to hand their starting quarterback position to Trey Lance. After all, you don't give up multiple first-round picks to move up and draft a guy, only to let him ride the bench.

Even incumbent starter Jimmy Garoppolo seemed to see the writing on the wall back in early February, saying: "It's been a fun ride guys and I really appreciate you for that. And yeah, I'll miss you guys."

Yet here we are on the cusp of April, and Jimmy G is still on the 49ers roster. What gives? Have the 49ers changed plans?

Not really, according to the NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, who said the team is just being patient.

"It's been clear for some time that the 49ers were not going to release Jimmy Garoppolo," Rapoport said. "… They hold a lot of the cards as far as where Jimmy Garoppolo is going to play in the future."

Rapoport pointed out that Garoppolo's offseason shoulder surgery slowed down the process of searching for a trade partner.

"Before the Indianapolis Colts traded for Matt Ryan, they went back and revisited some trade talks with the San Francisco 49ers," Rapoport said. "Did not go anywhere. So now there are two spots that Jimmy Garoppolo could potentially go. One, the Seattle Seahawks — hard to imagine them trading him in [the same] division — the other, the Carolina Panthers."

Rapoport said that knowing all of this, it was possible that the 49ers would simply hold onto Garoppolo, bring him to camp and see how things shake out.

One thing that Niners general manager John Lynch wanted to make clear: The team would not simply release him.

"I don't foresee that," Lynch said Monday, per ESPN. "He's too good a player. I think Jimmy will be playing for us or will be playing for someone else. He's too good of a player not to be."

Lynch said that he has not received any formal offers for Garoppolo. So it seems that Rapoport might be correct and the 49ers will wait and see if a trade market that has yet to materialize will do so.

"I think, ultimately, the teams that we were closest with [in trade talks], the surgery gave them pause and they ended up going in other directions," Lynch said.

Garoppolo isn't expected to throw at full strength until before training camp, so it appears he won't be going anywhere for a while. In fact, Lynch hinted that it was possible he would actually keep the eight-year veteran for another season.

"We value strength at that position," Lynch said. "To be completely forthright, though, when you make a trade of that magnitude [for Lance], most of our options did not include Jimmy on our books. On our team. But you always have to adapt and a series of events happened that it didn't work out. But that's not a bad thing, though. We feel positive with it. And we'll make it work."

Garoppolo is slated to count $26.95 million against next season's salary cap. Trading (or releasing) Garoppolo once he's healthy would save the Niners $25.55 million in cap space.