The 49ers are entering year two of a highly-scrutinized quarterback situation, one that became more complicated once Jimmy Garoppolo underwent shoulder surgery on March 8.
After general manager John Lynch conceded the surgery caused prospective trade partners to “pause” in negotiations and coach Kyle Shanahan discussed the possibility of bringing back Jimmy G, owner Jed York spoke to reporters at the NFL’s annual owners’ meetings about the entire situation.
York maintained an optimistic outlook despite the prospect of paying $26.9 million for Garoppolo to hold a clipboard as Trey Lance’s backup in 2022. In fact, you could argue York has an outlandish outlook, as he compared it to the franchise’s QB conundrum between Steve Young and Joe Montana.
“It’s professional sports,” York said, via NBC Sports Bay Area. “If Steve Young can sit on a bench for four seasons – like, Steve Young’s a Hall of Famer. If he’s willing to do it and he has the competitive drive to do it, why can’t somebody else? I think those two drove each other in the late 80s and early 90s to be the best they can possibly be. If that’s the situation that we have and that’s what’s created, sign me up for that problem any day.”
York became a target of some criticism on Twitter for the comparison, given that Garoppolo is no Montana and Lance is no Young – at least not yet. York owns the team, so part of his job with the media is to be the chief PR microphone for his brand. But even this spin might be a bit much.
Montana won two MVPs and four Super Bowls with the Niners before Young took over in 1992, won two MVPs of his own and the franchise's fifth Lombardi Trophy. Some 49ers fans joked about the validity of Jed's declaration:
Perhaps a closer comparison would be to the Alex Smith-Colin Kaepernick dynamic from the 2010s, as the young, up-and-coming, dual-threat Kap ultimately supplanted the respected veteran game manager Smith. Sound familiar to Lance and Jimmy G?
The most obvious difference in this situation is Garoppolo’s albatross of a contract. That’s fine money for an established QB1, but not for a guy embroiled in a potential training camp battle.
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Though the Niners used three first-rounders and a third-round pick to move up in the 2020 NFL Draft to select Lance at No. 3 overall, York said he’s not pressuring Lynch or Shanahan to play Trey.
“We have two really good quarterbacks on our roster,” York said. “One guy, he’s got us to the final four and beyond, two of the last three seasons. If he’s our guy, then that’s OK. If Trey’s our guy we traded up for, that’s OK. I want to win football games. It’s not about – we traded up for Trey so that’s an automatic decision. Jimmy has a lot of value. He has a lot of value as our quarterback, he has a lot of value if somebody wants to trade for him. Right now with his shoulder injury, that market is different than what I think it should be. But I don’t get to determine what someone else is willing to give up for Jimmy.”
“If Jimmy is gonna be here, that’s fine. I think that gives us a better chance to win if we’re very strong at the most important position in all of sports. I don’t ever want to tell those guys, ‘No, you have to do this.’ They know what the salary cap is. We always spend to the salary cap. And if this is where we wanna put our resources, quarterback is not a bad place to put more resources than somewhere else.”
Again, credit to York for trying to put a positive spin on their predicament. Lynch said the team didn’t foresee Garoppolo on the team’s 2022 roster in their projections, so they’re navigating through a pickle. There’s still four weeks until the NFL Draft and about four months until training camp opens, when Garoppolo is expected to be healthy.
But when your franchise is limited to mostly low-profile moves without signing Deebo Samuel or Nick Bosa to extensions, it’s hard to say investing 12.7 percent of your salary cap to Garoppolo makes much sense. Comparing Jimmy to Joe even less so.
