Jimmy Garoppolo's latest injury has to make you wonder if we've seen the last of him as the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers. Hall of Fame quarterback and ESPN analyst Steve Young seems to believe so. As does CBS Sports reporter Jason La Canfora, who was a guest this week on FOX Sports Radio's The Jason Smith Show.
Smith asked La Canfora if we've seen the last of Garoppolo with the 49ers, and if head coach Kyle Shanahan and company could go in another direction after this season.
"Yeah, I absolutely think so," La Canfora told Smith and Mike Harmon. "I reported on this a couple weeks ago, that talking to the people in that building, and talking to people close to that situation, that nobody was making any assertions about 'he's our guy,' 'he's our guy beyond this year,' 'we're building around him,' 'he's a guy that we're comfortable paying $26 million a year to moving forward.' It was not that vibe whatsoever.
"And there was actually some tension, and some clashing, differing on opinions about his previous high ankle sprain, and now he's got another one on top of that. The offensive line is starting to really suffer because of injuries. We know that they're short on running backs. Now, they're without their tight end (George Kittle) for the rest of the year, in all likelihood. And it's kind of been hit or miss at receiver, as well."
Garoppolo and Kittle haven't been the only significant losses this season. The 49ers roster has been devastated by injuries at nearly every position group. Stars like Richard Sherman and Nick Bosa have been lost for most of or the entire season.
With the 49ers already tightly pressed up against the salary cap, and that salary cap expected to possibly drop next year, Shanahan and general manager John Lynch will have some difficult decisions to make.
"Yeah, I think there's going to be a lot of recalibrations," La Canfora continued, "a lot of reassessments about where they are as a franchise, about what they need, and about what kind of money that they're spending now.
"I know this was a lost season for (Nick) Bosa, but he's going to play next year. He's going to play really well. They're going to have to pay him. They have a bunch of guys coming up again who they're going to have to pay.
"I've known Kyle a long time, and I know how he thinks. He's won with Matt Schaub, and he was 7-4 in the AFC East at one point with Brian Hoyer throwing 24 times a game to Josh Gordon. He had the RGIII 2012 season in Washington, and then two years later, he's winning a bunch of games with Kirk Cousins.
"I just know that they feel like they can go in a bunch of different directions, and maybe be more effective, more robust, have more of our playbook open to us than we have with Garoppolo."