You can both like that the 49ers are moving on from Jimmy Garoppolo and dislike that they’re holding him in football purgatory.
When the 49ers cut their roster down to 80 players Tuesday, they kept their marooned, incumbent starting quarterback on it.
Why?
We know how this sad saga ends: Garoppolo will be cut by the 49ers next week.
So why don’t the Niners get on with it?
For a team that is keen to “do right by their guys,” keeping Garoppolo on the roster for another week is unnecessary and unbecoming.
Kyle Shanahan’s comments on Garoppolo remaining on the roster on Tuesday fit that mold, too.
“Anything could happen,” a curt Shanahan said in his Tuesday press conference.
Not really, Kyle.
This gamesmanship around Garoppolo has run its course; the Niners have prolonged the inevitable long enough.
No trade is going to develop for Jimmy G. There was never going to be a trade for him. So if Garoppolo is worthy of being cut when the Niners have to trim their roster to 53 on Aug. 30, he can be cut now.
Unless, of course, the Niners intend to keep Garoppolo on the team’s 53-man roster. But there’s no indication of that, despite it being a decent (albeit costly) idea. Garoppolo has spent training camp throwing on a side field while the Niners practice. He’s cleared to be part of the team medically, but not politically.
That doesn’t seem like a guy sticking around for a while.
And while I know there’s still time before the Niners have to do something, this is looking more and more like another bad round of clock management from Shanahan.
The 49ers should release Garoppolo as soon as possible, as they have so many other veterans in training camps of years past.
Typically when the 49ers know that a veteran isn’t going to make the team in camp, they’ll cut him early to give him a chance to latch on with another team early enough to possibly make the 53-man roster. It’s the decent thing to do.
Obviously, Garoppolo’s situation is different, but that makes keeping him rostered all the more unnecessary.
I have certainly had my qualms with Garoppolo’s play, but even I think he deserves better than this.
What are the Niners afraid of?
Trey Lance getting seriously injured in Thursday’s preseason game against the Texans? Could the Niners — after waiting for months to see if another starting quarterback in the league was injured, as to trade Garoppolo to that team — be the one rostering Garoppolo as injury insurance?
I have a simple solution for the Niners if that’s the issue: don’t play Lance in Thursday’s preseason finale.
Also, if you’re so concerned about Lance being injured in a preseason game, why would you be getting rid of the only backup quarterback that could reasonably be expected to win a game in his stead, Garoppolo?
Maybe the Niners are afraid of Garoppolo joining another team — namely the Seahawks — three weeks before the start of the regular season?
Is the fear of facing a blue-and-neon-green-clad Garoppolo at Levi’s Stadium in Week 2 seriously a factor?
That’s lame. Have some conviction in your decision to move on from Garoppolo, and maintain some class in this divorce.
By the way, it’s only presumed that the Seahawks would be interested in signing Garoppolo because, well, their quarterbacks stink and Garoppolo, for all his flaws, is way better than them.
But there’s no guarantee Pete Carroll and whatever is left of the once-impressive Seattle football operations team will get in on Jimmy G should he hit the open market.
The presumption is made that Seattle is lurking because it’s logical. But folks made the same case for Garoppolo going to Cleveland after Deshaun Watson was suspended for 11 games. How’d that work out?
But NFL teams don’t have to be rational actors. In fact, they consistently prove that they are not.
The Browns aren’t interested in Garoppolo, despite the fact that Jacoby Brissett is going to be their quarterback for the majority of the season.
The Seahawks might want to actually ride with Drew Lock or Geno Smith and not Jimmy G. Teams do stupid stuff all the time. Shanahan didn’t evaluate Patrick Mahomes in the draft because he thought he was going to sign Kirk Cousins to San Francisco the following offseason.
Don’t take anything for granted as it pertains to Garoppolo’s future — even the obvious, logical stuff. Nothing has been straightforward or clean since the moment the Niners drafted Lance to replace him. Even without his albatross contract, Garoppolo could sit on the open market once the Niners cut him.
So do the dignified thing, Niners, and cut him already.
The 49ers dragging this out and not releasing Garoppolo until they absolutely must, lest they have to pay him the $24.2 million he’s guaranteed if he’s on the Week 1 roster, is small-time. It borders on petty.
Garoppolo’s tenure in San Francisco might be complicated, but he helped right a ship that had been steered way off course. He might not have been Shanahan’s first option at the beginning or the end, but he was the best option for four of the five years he was here. I knocked him for his play plenty, but the Niners won the NFC West and went to two NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl with him under center.
Garoppolo might not get his jersey retired, but he deserves better than to be part of a 27-player dump next week.
