San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan will speak with reporters before Tuesday's practice. The headline topic will be the team's decision to sign Jimmy Garoppolo to a restructured one-year deal, keeping the quarterback on the roster while significantly reducing his salary-cap figure.
The 49ers now own about $21 million in salary-cap space, per Over The Cap. That's up from about $3 million as of Monday morning. The deal has reportedly been in the works since last week but wasn't revealed until NFL insider Adam Schefter spilled all the glorious details.
San Francisco sought to trade Garoppolo all offseason. That failed miserably. The 49ers aren't entirely to blame, though. The quarterback shocked the team with his decision to undergo shoulder surgery on March 8. That threw a wrench into Lynch and Shanahan's plan.
Soon after, the once-booming market of quarterback-needy teams evaporated. The Niners had moved forward with second-year quarterback Trey Lance, last year's No. 3 overall pick, as their starter. Regardless of where things stood with their former starter, the Garoppolo-49ers marriage appeared set for a divorce.
Along the way, the 49ers did what you expected. They touted their faith in the 22-year-old quarterback while giving every indication that the 30-year-old quarterback's time in the Bay Area was over.
Now, Garoppolo is staying, and he will serve as his once-protégé's backup. Understandably, the news sent social media into a frenzy.
While most see this as a business decision, perhaps the only move available for a team that lacked options, San Francisco could have released Garoppolo. That would have freed up even more salary-cap space, but that might have resulted in Garoppolo signing with the Seattle Seahawks and facing his former team twice this season. That probably wasn't ideal in Lynch's and Shanahan's eyes.
One Bay Area reporter views the situation differently, though. He sees San Francisco's decision to keep Garoppolo as a statement about the team's feelings about the inexperienced Lance.
"This is a hedge, plain and simple," wrote Michael Silver of the San Francisco Chronicle. "And the reason the 49ers are hedging is because they're worried that Lance, for all his promise, won't be good enough to get their built-to-win-now team to its only acceptable destination — Glendale, Ariz., next February 12, with York hoisting the franchise's sixth Lombardi Trophy."
Silver points toward Lance's inconsistent training camp and even the quarterback's shaky outing during the preseason finale against the Houston Texans as reasons why doubt might have crept into Shanahan's head.
"Most concerning, he had issues with accuracy and consistency," Silver continued. "Sometimes during OTAs, he looked like a guy who could zip the ball from Point A to Point B with NFL-caliber proficiency. At other times, he looked like Ricky (Wild Thing) Vaughn in the first act of 'Major League.'… You'd better believe that Shanahan and his assistants were at least somewhat unnerved."
Silver believes that, paired with a lack of viable Garoppolo options, landed the 49ers where they are now. If things do go south with Lance, either due to an injury or inconsistent play, the team likely believes Garoppolo isn't a bad Plan B to have.
Click here to read Silver's full column.
