A big talking point about the 49ers all offseason is whether or not they will trade/release Jimmy Garoppolo. It has been a winding road. Every time we think we have the answer, it starts to change again. A few weeks ago, he looked good as gone. Now he looks safe. I personally don’t think we will truly have the answer until we do. There are just so many factors in this situation that we cannot pinpoint what exactly they’ll do here.
The first thing I want to mention here is that this situation does not appear to be awkward for Garoppolo with Lance. In fact, Garoppolo was the first 49ers player to get in touch with Lance as he reached out to someone with the team to get Lance’s number. That’s true leadership right there. You can’t ding Garoppolo on that part of him. He is a top-tier character and team guy. Lance is too. Neither guy is going to let it get awkward. Neither guy is going to get a big head. They aren’t like that. The 49ers feel very comfortable with that. If they weren’t, Garoppolo would have been gone already.
The big thing in this will be when Lance is ready to go. It’ll be interesting to see when that will be. He’s a very smart guy that absorbs information quickly so he can learn the playbook faster than anyone. He ran a ton of similar stuff at North Dakota State. He’s been working with private coach John Beck, who is close with Shanahan, on a lot of the finer things we can assume now after the fact. He might be more ready than we think.
The big thing for Lance will be reps. He only played 17 games in college and had the least amount of passes thrown by a QB taken in the first round in 40 years. He needs a ton of reps. He also needs real game action. He’s only played that one weird showcase game in the last 16 months. Does sitting on the bench another significant amount of time do him any good will be the big question to ask. Would he be better just getting in games right away and playing so he doesn’t get his growth stunted? These are fragile things Shanahan will have to handle. Lots of factors to take into account.
The other thing is that Shanahan is making big changes to his offense it appears with this. It’s evolving. The offense will look way different with Lance than Garoppolo. How would he handle that transition if it would happen mid-season? Or does he sit Lance the whole year and just roll with Garoppolo and then flip the offense over for 2022 to avoid such a change halfway through? Even more fragile things to handle.
The other thing will obviously be the market for Garoppolo. I look around the landscape of the NFL and I really don’t see a spot for him, as hard as that is to believe. You’d think a 29-year old Super Bowl starting QB would have a place to land. He may not just given the point we are in the offseason and the weird situations some teams are at QB. Lack of a market could make the best scenario to keep Garoppolo anyways.
There is another option here that’s been theorized by people. This is much like what the 49ers did with Kaepernick for a bit in 2012 before he became the full-time starter and that is giving him certain packages that gets him in games. In theory, I don’t hate the idea as it would be a way to ease him into things and get him reps. But practically speaking, I am unsure about this idea. I think it creates an odd dynamic. Even if both QBs are not gonna make it awkward, a situation like this could throw a wrench into the mix that could be bad for both. A power struggle could be born from this. A question about which QB is the true leader of the group at that time comes into question. You have one foot in with both QBs like this and it’s hard and you can get stuck. I don’t love inviting that into my QB room with a guy I just spent a ton on to acquire. It’s a weird middling solution that could create more issues than it’s worth. It can be done right sure, but there are so many ways it can be done wrong too and you ruin the whole thing.
The beauty of this decision is that it doesn’t need to be made immediately. As I said, the 49ers feel comfort in this current situation. They have time to see where it goes and can pivot if need be. If Lance is ready week 1, just start him and figure out whatever with Garoppolo. If he’s not ready, roll with Garoppolo. We could also see a Bradford situation. Some team has QB issues in training camp and gets desperate to find a guy fast and Garoppolo happens to be an option so they give up more than they should for him. What helped there, as well, is that Wentz looked way ahead of where they thought he’d be at the time. He was expected to sit a bit as well, but he was ready to go. Ironically, that situation paved the way for North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz to start week 1 for the Eagles his rookie year. Lance is from the same school.
I personally think they’ll hold onto Garoppolo and try to have a Alex Smith/Patrick Mahomes situation. But you can make the case they’ll just start Lance week 1 just as easily. As I said, nobody will know until whatever happens, happens. We’ll just have to see how it plays out. It won’t be decided very soon, but as the offseason rolls on, we’ll get a clearer picture. Nothing is cemented here. Things can happen, and they can happen fast. These things usually work themselves out too.
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