Steve Young calls possibility of 49ers replacing Jimmy Garoppolo with a rookie ‘intriguing’

Jimmy Garoppolo must be the favorite to be the San Francisco 49ers starting quarterback after the Los Angeles Rams outbid everyone for Matthew Stafford, right? You still have names like Deshaun Watson, who may become available at some point. However, that acquisition is likely to require an unprecedented deal. Jason La Canfora recently explained why the 49ers might not last long in a bidding war against other teams.

Then you have other names like Carson Wentz and Sam Darnold. In the minds of most Niner fans, neither feels like much of an upgrade over Garoppolo.

You also have the upcoming draft. San Francisco could find an heir apparent there. Or maybe the team looks to ride with a rookie in 2021 and shed Garoppolo's salary. The penalty would just be a paltry $2.8 million. That's nothing compared to the savings. And it would mean more money to spend elsewhere.

Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young joined KNBR this week and was asked which scenario sounded preferable — sticking with Garoppolo or going with a rookie and keeping the team's championship core together? Young sounds like he trusts head coach Kyle Shanahan's judgment but feels like San Francisco "got beat to the punch" by the Rams in the Stafford situation.

The 49ers reportedly never officially made an offer for Stafford but had some discussions with the Lions about the quarterback.

"But I don't think the 49ers are going to miss anybody else," Young said on the Tolbert, Krueger & Brooks show, "and I think they're in the mix for every bit of it. I think it's going to play out in front of all of us over the next couple of months.

"But they have to maintain that relationship with Jimmy because it might be that's what they want to do, and they don't want to feel like it's, 'Oh well, we ended up with Jimmy.' That's the wrong way to think about it.

"And it [benefits] Jimmy to lean into his relationship with Kyle to show him that he can be trusted, and can be that guy that Kyle's seeking. And I don't know if there's a lot of ways to prove that other than on the field. But certainly, I wouldn't let any chance of conversation that I can have with Kyle, to go to his house and hang out with him ... I'd live at his house, if I had to, to try to make sure [Garoppolo] was up to speed and develop that relationship."

As for the Garoppolo versus a rookie quarterback debate, Young added, "It is intriguing to try to open up the Super Bowl window, to hold onto everybody, if you thought you had a quarterback that Kyle could trust more."

You can listen to the entire interview with Young below. The portion discussing the quarterback situation begins at about the 23-minute mark.