Jimmy Garoppolo probably isn't happy with the situation he went through while with the San Francisco 49ers. Yes, the quarterback saw a lot of success with the Bay Area team and made a lot of money along the way, but head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch were trying to replace him every year.
That started in 2020, after the 49ers' last Super Bowl appearance. Shanahan and Lynch flirted with bringing in Tom Brady but eventually opted to stick with the younger Garoppolo, who had just nearly won a championship.
In 2021, the 49ers looked into options like Matthew Stafford before trading a haul of draft capital to add a player the team hoped would be Garoppolo's successor, Trey Lance. That clearly didn't work out. Last week, San Francisco traded Lance to the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick.
Brady and Stafford, by the way, went on to win Super Bowls for their respective new teams.
Last season, the 49ers tried to trade Garoppolo, but offseason surgery threw a wrench in those plans, and the quarterback returned on a restructured one-year deal.
Garoppolo recently sat down with Robin Lundberg of Sports Illustrated. During the conversation, Garoppolo was asked about the 49ers trading Lance to the Cowboys for significantly less than the three first-rounders and third-rounder the team spent to acquire the young quarterback.
Jimmy Garoppolo joined @robinlundberg to share his thoughts on the 49ers trading Trey Lance to the Cowboys 👀 pic.twitter.com/FSpMbTYw3X
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) August 29, 2023
"Weird situation," Garoppolo told Lundberg. "Been a lot of weird situations over there in San Francisco. I'll just leave it at that. But I'm happy Trey got another shot. I'm happy he's going to Dallas, gets another opportunity, and hopefully things work out there."
Lundberg asked Garoppolo how he thinks the 49ers have handled their quarterback situation.
Garoppolo smiled and responded, "How do you think they've handled them?"
Lundberg called the fiasco in Santa Clara "messy," to which Garoppolo responded, "That's a nice way to put it."
Clearly, Garoppolo isn't happy with how 49ers decision-makers handled things. However, despite Lance coming in to succeed him, the now-Las Vegas Raiders quarterback praised his former teammate.
"This is a weird league," Garoppolo said. "Everyone has a different story how they get to places, myself included in that. It's never a straight line. There's always going to be bumps in the road and some things you have to overcome, and I think Trey is made of the right stuff. He's a good dude. I love that guy. He's a brother to me, so I'm always pulling for him."