When will the San Francisco 49ers finally trade quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, officially ushering in the Trey Lance era without the distraction of the veteran still being on the roster? The team has tried, but Garoppolo opting to undergo shoulder surgery on March 8 halted all trade talks.
"I felt like we were close in some [trade] discussions, and then the decision was made to have surgery," general manager John Lynch said earlier this month. "That just brought things to a screeching halt."
Now, everyone is waiting for Garoppolo to be healthy again. The problem is that many quarterback-needy teams have already made offseason moves to improve the position. A couple of options might remain, but the landscape has changed significantly in the past few months.
"One, the hope is that Jimmy Garoppolo, coming off [shoulder] surgery, will be throwing in late June," wrote Albert Breer in a recent mailbag for The MMQB. "If he can prove then that he's capable, that'd help—remember, with just one year left on his contract, how soon he gets back to full strength is an important element in his marketability. And not being able to throw in March and April, with the rehab finish line months away, hurt his trade value then."
Breer's second point is that by the time Garoppolo is healthy, teams will have already gone through organized team activities and a mandatory minicamp, with just training camp ahead of them. While that could be viewed as a negative due to Garoppolo missing out on the entirety of a potential landing spot's offseason program, there is a possibility that a quarterback issue arises somewhere. For example, an injury could occur, or a team could look at their current quarterback situation and decide that it isn't good enough.
"So, Niners fans, if you want a decent return for Garoppolo, I'd say getting it will ride on the quarterback's own health, and (literal and figurative) health of the position at other teams," added Breer.
