When the 49ers season ended, it seemed like a matter of when not if the team would trade quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
But then Garoppolo had surgery on his throwing shoulder. That’s complicated matters for San Francisco.
Speaking at the annual league meeting on Tuesday, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan admitted that Garoppolo’s shoulder surgery has made things “a little bit tougher” for the team when it comes to Garoppolo’s trade market. But the club still plans to maximize Garoppolo’s value.
“Everything’s good with Jimmy,” Shanahan said. “Anytime someone gets a surgery, especially on their throwing shoulder, teams are going to be a little more nervous with what they want to offer and things like that. So I think that did put it on hold. And we’re alright with that. We went through the free-agent period, so we had to make some adjustments and do some things like that, but we’ve got him on the books right now and we’ll keep it that way until something else can improve us.”
Shanahan said he can see a scenario where Garoppolo is on the team’s roster in 2022. But that doesn’t seem very likely, given that the team is ready to move on to last year’s No. 3 overall pick Trey Lance.
“That’s why we looked into trading Jimmy, because we obviously believe that Trey can be a starter,” Shanahan said. “And we’re ready to do that. But if we can’t upgrade our team in another way, we’re not just going to get rid of a good quarterback because we have other quarterbacks on the roster.
“We know we have all guys who are capable of starting — which, Jimmy’s done a great job for us. We brought Trey here to be that eventually. And I think that’ll be sooner than later, but Jimmy gets the surgery and we can’t upgrade our team by getting some good picks until people feel good about that, I’m alright with that. We’re not just getting rid of him to get rid of him. Jimmy’s a good player that we all like as a person and as a teammate and we’re going to wait to see whatever helps the Niners the most.
If Garoppolo is still on the roster by the time training camp starts, Shanahan said he expects the quarterback to be with the team. With his surgery, Garoppolo is unlikely to be able to throw until then anyway. Should that happen, Shanahan didn’t say that there would be a QB competition. And that’s not something the team has to worry about until late July.
But because Garoppolo is under contract, Shanahan maintained that the 49ers aren’t just going to just make a move that does not benefit the team.
“We’re willing to do anything — the best we can do for the Niners,” Shanahan said. “The good thing is we don’t have to decide it today. We’re trying to see what the best thing is for the Niners and having a good quarterback like Jimmy is not a bad thing. Being able to upgrade our roster by getting draft picks is a really good thing. What’s the timeline on that? It’s different when you get surgery. So that’s what we’re all dealing with. That’s really as simple as it is.”
