It's not easy being an NFL quarterback. Jimmy Garoppolo knows that. Just a year ago, he was in the Super Bowl. Weeks later, he had to watch every sports media outlet talking about the chances of his San Francisco 49ers replacing him with Tom Brady.
This offseason is no different.
The 49ers looked into Matthew Stafford, reportedly never officially offering a trade package, but there were probably conversations both internally and with the Detroit Lions. San Francisco has been linked (by speculation) to nearly every trade rumor involving a quarterback.
"I think it's speculation. I think it's rumors. I think it's chatter," Kittle said this week on the AP Pro Football Podcast. "I think people on social media like to talk about things that I don't know if they have any idea about. Being in the building, being in the locker room, I don't really hear anything in there. So I'm just confident in my quarterback. When he's healthy, he's a hell of a football player."
Those words echo what Kittle has said all offseason, and mostly this week as the All-Pro tight end promotes his endorsements before Super Bowl LV. He has a lot of faith in his quarterback, whom everyone appears ready to replace. Kittle feels Garoppolo is good at blocking all of the outside noise, though.
"I have not talked to Jimmy about it," Kittle continued, "but I think it's his second or third year of dealing with these exact same rumors every single offseason. And he just comes back to work, and he just goes back, and he plays, and I'm not worried about it. I think Jimmy's a grown man, and he can deal with that, and he's a hell of a quarterback, like I said."
Garoppolo remains signed through the 2022 season and has a no-trade clause within his contract for this year. That means, if the 49ers were looking to trade the quarterback, he would have to approve of his destination. However, his team-friendly contract is structured so that trading or even releasing Garoppolo would have little impact on San Francisco's salary cap.
In 2019, Garoppolo started all 16 games for the first time during his pro career, helping guide the 49ers to a Super Bowl appearance. He has missed 23 games over the past three seasons, though, missing 10 games this past season due to ankle injuries. That wasn't the only reason for the Super Bowl hangover. Garoppolo wasn't the only injury. Add names like Nick Bosa, Dee Ford, Raheem Mostert, Deebo Samuel, and Kittle to the list. Each of them missed at least half of the season.
"I feel like we had about 15 guys on [injured reserve] by Week 2 or 3," Kittle said. "When you have that many injuries, especially to key players ... we lost a lot of guys early, and I think it just kind of prohibited us from getting that unity, getting that flow going as an offense.
"Our defense played at a high level all year, despite all the guys that they missed, but we just had so many guys in and out of the huddle early on offense. I think that was a struggle for us, especially because we have a young team on offense as well. So you just got to stay healthy, and really I'm not worried about anything else other than that."