No one really expected the San Francisco 49ers to trade Jimmy Garoppolo before yesterday's deadline. Kyle Shanahan has repeatedly stated that Garoppolo is his QB1, at least for as long as the playoffs remain a possibility. The coach feels his veteran quarterback gives him the best chance to win right now, so the start of the Trey Lance era will have to wait.
Fair or not, Garoppolo has shouldered much of the fan blame for this season's woes. The 49ers were riding a four-game losing streak (Garoppolo missed a game and a half during that stretch due to a calf injury) before this past weekend's win against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field. Garoppolo played like a man looking to prove his critics wrong, completing 17 of his 28 pass attempts for 322 yards and a passer rating of 100.6. He even had two rushing touchdowns in the 33-22 victory.
Coming off a win and strong performance, one NFL Media analyst believes the 49ers should have taken advantage of the situation. Gil Brandt has Garoppolo listed as one of the seven deals he feels should have happened before the trade deadline.
Where does Brandt feel Garoppolo should have landed? With Sean Payton and the New Orleans Saints. Quarterback Jameis Winston suffered a torn ACL in his left knee and sustained MCL damage on Sunday, leaving the Saints coach Trevor Siemian and Taysom Hill as his options moving forward.
"On a certain level, it makes sense that New Orleans did not rush to make a deadline deal," wrote Brandt. "And adding Garoppolo's contract likely would have been difficult to navigate for the cap-strapped team. But given that this regret-tinged reflection on what could have been is already an exercise in alternate realities, let's set all that aside. Because the idea of Payton making Garoppolo his latest reclamation project is just too tantalizing not to chew over."
The season-long narrative has been that Garoppolo is holding the offense back, keeping it from reaching its full potential. As a result, fans are eager to see if Lance can add a spark to the team. However, Shanahan has been pleased with Garoppolo and called the narrative that the quarterback has played poorly all season "inaccurate."
Garoppolo will remain with San Francisco for the remainder of the season, but Brandt still wonders about what could have been.
"Imagine Garoppolo helping to shepherd New Orleans' otherwise competitive roster to the playoffs," Brandt continued, "refurbishing his reputation and maybe even setting himself up as a potential long-term option for Payton. San Francisco, meanwhile, might have benefitted from committing the rest of the season to Trey Lance's development while also extracting extra picks rather than delaying the inevitable end to the Jimmy G era."