In March, Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio reported that the San Francisco 49ers were telling teams inquiring about trading for Jimmy Garoppolo that they already had an offer on the table.
"As we hear it, 49ers G.M. John Lynch is telling interested teams that he has an offer in hand of two second-round picks for Garoppolo, a player the team acquired in 2017 for one second-round pick," Florio wrote.
It's worth noting that the report came well after Garoppolo undergoing shoulder surgery.
More than five months later, during his regular KNBR interview, general manager John Lynch was asked about that rumor.
"I never said that," Lynch said on the Murph & Mac show before laughing. "We were in a bunch of talks with teams, and it was right about when we were at the Combine, those talks were heating up. So conceptually, we had talked about a number of different things, and we were kind of looking and saying, 'OK, where is the best offer?'
"But then Jimmy and Dr. [Neal] ElAttrache and everybody made the decision that he needed something that we thought was going to just be a rest and rehab. We reevaluated, and [they said], 'The rest and rehab's not working. We're going to go ahead and have surgery.' And that happened while we were at the Combine. 'And we're going to do it tomorrow.'
"It was like, 'Whoa.' It was my duty at that point to call those teams and go, 'Hold on, there's a little twist.' And then they all said, 'Obviously, we're going to have to sit back and let this thing clear and see where it goes.' That's that whole story."
The rest of the story, you know. The market of potential trade partners dried up as quarterback-needy teams addressed the position. By the time Garoppolo was healthy, there wasn't a market for him anymore.
That left just two options. Either Garoppolo gets released, which the 49ers admitted they might have been forced to do because of the quarterback's $24.2 million base salary, or he returns to the team with a significant pay cut. Garoppolo chose option two because there was no guarantee that he would do better on the open market at this point in the year when rosters are pretty much set.
"There's only so many chairs, if you want to make that analogy (of musical chairs), and all the chairs filled up," Lynch said. "... I'm at a loss as to why the interest wasn't there, but we're the beneficiary of that, in my mind."
Before making a final decision, Lynch says he and Shanahan spoke with second-year quarterback Trey Lance, the 49ers' starter, and 15 team leaders. Everyone supported the idea of bringing back Garoppolo.
You can listen to the entire conversation with Lynch below.
