SANTA CLARA – When Trey Lance went down with his ankle injury late in the first quarter of Sunday’s contest against the Seattle Seahawks, Jimmy Garoppolo’s incentive-laden contract started kicking in. Big time.
By the end of the 27-7 Week 2 win over their NFC West rivals, Garoppolo was $350,000 richer. He finished the afternoon 13-of-21 for 154 yards, a passing touchdown and a one-yard rushing score.
The 49ers restructured the final year of Garoppolo’s contract and reduced his base salary to $6.5 million as Lance’s backup, down from its original value of $24.2 million. As part of the incentives, Garoppolo makes $29,000 for games he suits up, $250,000 for every game where he plays more than 25 percent and $100,000 for every one of those games where the 49ers win.
Not many people can make an extra $350,000 in the span of three hours, but that’s why it pays to be an NFL quarterback.
"Just like riding a bike," Garoppolo said of rejoining the 49ers offense. "It felt good to be back out there. Feel terrible for Trey, I’ve been on that side of it, this league is tough."
Many questioned why the 49ers decided to bring back Garoppolo – with some saying his mere presence could mess with the mentality of Lance – but San Francisco is looking smart now. It’s not often you can lose your starting quarterback five quarters into a season and still have a chance to chug along so seamlessly.
The 49ers had the best insurance option possible in Garoppolo.
Here's how much money Garoppolo can make the rest of the regular season with 15 games remaining:
- $435,000 for being on gameday roster ($29K per game)
- $3.75 million for playing more than 25% offensive snaps ($250K per game)
- $1.5 million for winning those games ($100K) per game
- $5.685 million regular-season incentives remaining
So far, the 49ers are on the hook for Garoppolo's $6.5 million base salary and $408,000 incentives. In all, we're looking at about a $12.6 million contract cap for Garoppolo in the regular season. That's if he plays 25 percent of the snaps in all 15 remaining games and the 49ers go 15-0.
The biggest chunk of the change comes from that 25% played clause. Let's say the Niners go 10-7 and Garoppolo misses two games? That'd come out to an extra $4.627 million in incentives from here on out, or about $11.5 million for the regular season.
Garoppolo can add another $3.5 million if the 49ers play in four playoff games and win the Super Bowl, but the extra postseason cash would pay for those incentives easily. At this point, Jimmy G's contract is looking like a team-friendly deal. Likewise, Garoppolo could be elsewhere with no playing time and less money, so it's a safe to call it a win-win for both sides.
