Unless Jimmy Garoppolo’s new, reworked contract with the 49ers includes weeks of mandatory acting classes that can turn him into a nonthreatening role model of a backup quarterback, forgive us if we don’t join the chorus of praise being heaped on the 49ers for not finding a trade partner and being too scared to cut him.
Sure, on paper, this all checks out. The 49ers keep Garoppolo away from the Seahawks. They have a massive trade chip if a contending team loses its starter before the trade deadline. They line themselves up for a solid compensatory return if nothing happens at all and Garoppolo leaves after the season in free agency. They also have a suitable backup if Trey Lance struggles and the team is still good enough to make a deep run in the playoffs.
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But that last part, if you’re John Lynch or Kyle Shanahan, should also be the most compelling reason to let Garoppolo go. They will absolutely win the moment when each NFL insider points out just how smart they got at the negotiating table and how happy everyone is right now. But, what happens if the 49ers lose three straight games in mid-November and there’s a guy who's been to the Super Bowl sitting on the bench with a told-you-so smirk on his face?
This isn’t a shot at Lance, but it’s a glimpse of reality. The 49ers know Lance, whom they traded three first-round picks to move up and select in the 2021 draft, is a raw talent Shanahan needed to slow-play last year. Players will now see Garoppolo back in the locker room. They all want their touches and targets. They all want their playoff bonuses. In reality, they care little about who delivers the ball to them so long as it gets there. It’s naive to believe that a locker room can privately and publicly get behind a developing young player trying to lead a talented group of veterans through the typical rookie pitfalls, when a more sensible, efficient option exists in their presence on a daily basis.
We’re not arguing the 49ers should roll with a pair of XFL castaways behind Lance and leave themselves threadbare at the position. There’s a certain groove, a rhythm that teams have to pick up on when it comes to pairing a developing young player with a veteran quarterback. The experienced guy has to be talented without encroaching. They have to be prepared but not ready. They have to be Mark Brunell in his 40s, or Josh McCown on his 90th team, or on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, possess the kind of defeated, RC Cola energy of Andy Dalton or Mike Glennon. They have to be the kind of players who exist on a roster mostly to exist, whom fans and media and anonymous scouts or executives whispering to reporters around the league would not pine for in the event of an emergency.
Instead, the 49ers have chosen the proverbial ex-boyfriend (who has his own Subway commercial, by the way). While that may be the kind of daily reminder and motivation Lance needs to clear his version of the NFL toddler phase, it could also be a developmental brick to the skull. The very act of nervously and tediously reinstalling Garoppolo on the roster, when the entire thing could have been waved off with a dismissive release and the signing of Josh Johnson, could be enough of a tell for a group of teammates who understand how this business works on a deeply cynical (and accurate) level.
The 49ers are essentially holding up a third-round pick (what they would get as a compensatory selection if they keep Garoppolo for the season and allow him to hit free agency). They are essentially holding out hope that they would receive something more if multiple teams need quality starting help at the deadline and decide to bid one another up as enough collateral to risk the psychological damage done to a quarterback who has seen about as much live game action over the past three seasons as you or I (we are not NFL quarterbacks, remember). What is more likely? A cataclysmic QB injury such as the Teddy Bridgewater debacle in Minnesota that forced the Vikings to trade a first-round pick for Sam Bradford? Or that having Garoppolo on the roster kind of bothers Lance and interrupts the most critical part of this operation, which is making Lance comfortable enough to perform at a high level?
This is not Joe Montana vs. Steve Young at practice every day, no matter how much 49ers fans would enjoy the flimsy connection. It’s probably a lot like how you imagine it: trying to do your job, while someone who has done it better than you for a very long time sits there and watches you figure it out, with every motivation in the world to heroically trot on the field and save the day if your performance gets bad enough.
There is, of course, nothing anyone can put in a contract to prevent that from happening. To prevent people from feeling things. From being scared. From looking over their shoulder. From trying to take what they feel is rightfully theirs. And for that reason alone, keeping Garoppolo was a bad idea.
