Jimmy Garoppolo on Tuesday passed his physical and won’t begin the 2022 season on any injured list according to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco.
Garoppolo reported to the team facility along with the rest of the club for routine pre-camp physicals a day ahead of the first camp practice. His clearance will keep him from going on the Physically Unable to Perform list, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to practice with the club. If anything it will expedite the process on the 49ers either trading him or releasing him with all signs pointing to one or the other happening.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan on Tuesday said the club would need to wait for Garoppolo to be cleared before moving forward with his future.
“He knows we have a team to think about too, and we’ll work together to figure out the best thing for that,” Shanahan said of Garoppolo’s future. “But in the meantime, he’s cleared to practice, but he does have a throwing program like all guys do when they get elbow or shoulder surgery, anything with your arm there’s a protocol in how you build them up, so they don’t re-aggravate that, and he’ll be doing that on the side. We don’t plan on practicing him with the team. We’ll take it day-by-day and constantly talk with him and hopefully can figure out the best for both.”
Garoppolo underwent offseason surgery on his throwing shoulder following an injury he suffered in the 49ers’ wild-card win over the Cowboys in January. The team’s plan was to trade him early in the offseason, but that was derailed by Garoppolo’s eventual need for surgery.
Shanahan made it clear the club was moving forward with Trey Lance as its starting quarterback and shut virtually all doors on a Garoppolo return, even in a backup capacity.
It appears the team will still be trying to trade him, but at some point it might benefit both sides for the 49ers to grant the veteran QB is release.
Garoppolo had a $7.5 million injury guarantee on his contract that might’ve held the 49ers back from doing anything with him earlier in the offseason. Now that he’s cleared the club won’t be on the hook for that guarantee, and instead will take a $1.4 million dead cap hit by letting him go.
The 49ers have time to make that decision since his $24.2 million base salary doesn’t come due until the first week of the regular season. Garoppolo may not want to wait that long though and now that he’s cleared, the 49ers have an open runway to execute whatever their next plan is.
