It's April 25th, 2022, and Jimmy Garoppolo remains on the San Francisco 49ers roster.
The Garoppolo situation has been somewhat overlooked recently, due to how long the 49ers have dragged it out, as well as the recent Deebo Samuel issue.
However, the 49ers could be looking at a resolution soon, as the draft should reveal which teams are in need of a quarterback, perhaps providing a potential destination for Garoppolo once he's healthy, such as the Carolina Panthers.
At his pre-draft press conference, general manager John Lynch reiterated that the 49ers believe Garoppolo should be healthy and throwing towards the end of June.
"We've been in contact with his representation, and in communication with him," Lynch said. "I think the progress is good. So he's tracking kind of right where we said—throwing towards the end of June, and ramping it up from there. So, that's where that's at."
As for why the 49ers have held on to him for this long, Lynch pointed to the value of Garoppolo and the quarterback position, affirming that the team will be patient with his situation.
"Guys like that don't fall out of trees," Lynch shared. "He's a good player at a position where they're hard to find. And so you certainly don't just give guys like that away and we can, I guess, foot the bill if you want to describe it as that. And so we'll be patient with that one."
While there were discussions involving a trade, Lynch, like Shanahan in March, admitted that the shoulder surgery disrupted San Francisco's potential plans, causing them to change directions.
"It never got to that point," Lynch admitted. "There were certainly the various discussions with different places in terms of how far along, but that certainly threw a wrench in those things. You adapt and you move forward. Like we said, we like the things that Jimmy brings to the table, and so we're doing what we think is best for our team and for Jimmy by keeping him with us for right now."
While the 49ers do like competition at the quarterback position, as Lynch mentioned, carrying a second quarterback with a near-$27 million cap hit would be unprecedented.
- Rohan Chakravarthi
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Written by:Writer/Reporter for 49ers Webzone
