49ers training camp is just six days away and we’re still in wait-and-see mode with Jimmy Garoppolo.
Can we learn anything from the way Baker Mayfield broke up with the Cleveland Browns? MMQB’s Albert Breer joined 95.7 The Game’s “The Morning Roast” Thursday to give his latest insight on the Jimmy G situation, but why it’s different than Mayfield’s.
The agents for the quarterback have been given permission to seek a trade, as reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Tuesday. Two weeks ago, the Cleveland Browns shipped Baker Mayfield to the Carolina Panthers, as they shift to an uncertain future with Deshaun Watson.
“I think Jimmy’s gotta be careful here too,” Breer told hosts Bonta Hill and Joe Shasky. “Baker had the leverage of all of his money being guaranteed. Baker could say, ‘You got a problem with me being on your roster? Cut me. And then I’ll walk away knowing I’m gonna make $18.8 million from you this year.’ With Jimmy it’s different than that. With Jimmy, you can say, ‘I’ll cut you tomorrow and we don’t owe you a red cent.’ Where Jimmy can go draw a line in the sand and say, ‘I’m worth X or I’m worth Y or I’m worth Z,’ now the Niners have the power to call his bluff and cut him and let him go and let him go in an environment where cap space around the league is not what it was in February and March and April. I think the money’s the key part of it.”
San Francisco can save $25.5 million by cutting Garoppolo before his base salary guarantees on Aug. 30. The 49ers are on the hook for $1.4 million of dead cap money, but it’s just part of his $7 million signing bonus that was split over the life of his five-year deal signed in 2017. They already paid Garoppolo that money, so it’s just $1.4 million on paper.
The Browns had to send $10.5 million to the Panthers to get Mayfield out the door and got a fifth-round pick in return. If the Niners have to ship a few million to another team and only get a mid-round draft pick as recompense, it might not make much sense to execute a trade.
“That would be the Niners basically buying back a draft pick at this point,” Breer said. “That’s what you have to weigh. Are you better off cutting him and saving that money? Or are you better off buying yourself a draft pick?”
Breer said we are witnessing the fallout of Garoppolo’s decision to try and rehab his injured shoulder after the season, which pushed his surgery to March 8.
“He would have been a real commodity,” Breer said “If the rehab had taken and the pain had gone away, he thought to himself, ‘Ah I could make it through this year fine’ I think there’s merit in that idea.”
It’s late July and we’re still shrouded in mystery. To think what could have been, if Garoppolo’s rehab went well, and he was available to trade in mid-April.
“Then he’s a real commodity for the Niners to trade,” Breer said. “The Niners win in that situation because they’re able to get a draft pick for him. Jimmy gets to start somewhere else and maybe JImmy’s getting all of his money, too. That was what he was trying to accomplish. The downside is what we’ve seen play out. You wait six weeks and still have pain, and now you’ve screwed up the timeline, it’s harder for the Niners to trade you and it’s harder for you to find a starting job.”
