Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
Jimmy Garoppolo will earn a base salary of $24.1 million in 2021. The plan is to have
Trey Lance, whom the San Francisco 49ers drafted No. 3 overall last week, eventually take over for him. Keeping Garoppolo, a savvy veteran who is already well-versed in head coach Kyle Shanahan's offense, might seem like a no-brainer from a personnel perspective. After all, the 49ers are built to win now. Are the hopes of a championship season something you want to throw on the shoulders of a rookie quarterback?
Financially, it is a significant ask of ownership. That is a lot of money to invest in a player who may only be around for one more season. You're basically paying out much of your salary cap for a potential one-year rental. However, it does allow Lance the luxury of starting his NFL career by sitting and learning.
General manager John Lynch had to be worried when he approached York, asking not only to surrender valuable future draft capital to trade up but then asking to keep their already expensive veteran quarterback. After all, San Francisco could use that money on future long-term deals for players like
Fred Warner or
Nick Bosa.
"[T]hat's a big decision for an owner,"
Lynch recently told Sports Illustrated. "And he backed it 100 percent because he wants to win. We felt that gave us the best chance to win."
RELATED 49ers CEO Jed York recalls awkward conversation with Aaron Rodgers
York offered his own perspective into the decision and the investment in keeping Garoppolo while drafting a young star quarterback.
"Just rough math, over a five-year period, you're talking about a rookie quarterback contract versus a veteran," York explained to
Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area. "I don't know what the quarterback market is going to be next offseason. But just looking at where we're at now, it's roughly about $150 million in cap savings.
"So, for us, if you invest $25 (million) or $50 million into your rookie to get them ready, then to me, we're investing in the long-term future of our team. And you never want to put somebody out there, especially a guy who you heard the sort of parlance about Trey, [that] he hasn't played as much.
"He's played as many or more games than the three quarterbacks that were taken either at him or around him, and he didn't play this season. They played one game. That's not Trey's fault. They wanted to play football this year."
York adds that Lance turns 21 on Sunday. He is young, and investing this year in a guy that could play for 15 years doesn't seem financially risky to the team's CEO.
"I want to make sure that we do everything we can to make sure that [the quarterback] position is the best it can possibly be in the NFL," York said. "And even if he doesn't play for two years, we still have an extra $100 million to put back into our team, on top of whatever we would have over free agency over the next five years."
York added: "For us, if we get the right quarterback, and we have somebody that can be here for the next generation of this football team, then no amount is too much for that."
You can listen to the entire discussion with York below.
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Jimmy Garoppolo is trying to fend off anyone from overtaking him on the depth chart — specifically, the No. 3 overall pick, Trey Lance. It sounds like he put in a solid effort during organized team activities, which ended today. The veteran quarterback will look to continue impressing his coaches in training camp at the end of July.
Garoppolo is slated to be the San Francisco 49ers' starting quarterback when the team kicks off against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on September 12. Head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke with reporters today and expressed how pleased he is with Garoppolo's performance during the offseason program.
"I think Jimmy had his best spring
San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle was a guest today on Good Morning Football and discussed several topics of interest. Among those topics was the dynamic between the team's starting quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, and the rookie drafted at No. 3 overall to eventually succeed him, Trey Lance.
One would think that could create an awkward situation in the quarterback room and possibly the locker room. That hasn't been the case for the 49ers, though. Garoppolo has been welcoming to the young quarterback and willing to serve as his mentor while preparing for the 2021 season.
"I know there was a story that came out that Jimmy Garoppolo was one of the first guys to text Trey Lance," Kittle said. "That's just the type of guy that Jimmy is. He's not going
Trey Lance won't be automatically relegated to a backup role at quarterback this season just because he's a rookie, but he'll have his work cut out for him if he wants to prove he should be the starter over Jimmy Garoppolo.
The widespread assumption is that the veteran Garoppolo will start for the 49ers this season while the first-round pick Lance learns from the sidelines. But 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan won't be approaching the situation from that perspective once training camp gets underway in late July, at least not initially.
Shanahan spoke about that and a number of other topics during a conversation with Tim Kawakami of The Athletic on the most recent episode of Kawakami's TK Show
This past Friday was media day for the San Francisco 49ers, and the team shared some photos of its eight drafted players via Instagram. You can swipe through the post below to see each of the rookies in their game-day uniforms.
