The San Francisco 49ers have made it clear that they are comfortable heading into the 2021 season with Jimmy Garoppolo as their starting quarterback. However, that does not mean they are totally opposed to trading him.
Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch spoke with the media on Monday about the team’s blockbuster trade to move up to No. 3 overall in the first round of the NFL Draft. Shanahan said he has full confidence in Garoppolo but that the team cannot rule out being blown away with a trade offer.
Shanahan won’t rule out a trade if the 49ers are absolutely blown away but continues to emphasize that he doesn’t want to throw the rookie QB into the fire before he’s ready.
“It’s going to be hard to find a rookie quarterback better than Jimmy right now."
— David Lombardi (@LombardiHimself) March 29, 2021
Shanahan also joked that he would expect the 49ers to trade him if they were “blown away” by an offer.
It is obvious that the Niners will draft a QB at No. 3, but Lynch said that does not make Garoppolo any less a part of their plans.
49ers GM John Lynch: "We felt like we had a team that can compete. … We went to ownership, said 'hey things are looking good, we want to make this (trade), but we don't want to say good bye to Jimmy.'"
Ownership signed off on keeping both a rookie and Jimmy Garoppolo.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) March 29, 2021
All indications have been that Garoppolo will remain San Francisco’s starter next season. An argument could be made that the Niners are simply trying to manipulate the market for him, but one team that has been linked to Jimmy G. is apparently not interested anymore.
One important thing to note is that Garoppolo has a full no-trade clause in his contract for 2021 but not 2022. Depending on how quickly the Niners’ rookie quarterback develops, they could always try to trade Garoppolo again next offseason when he has no control over where he ends up.
