Jimmy Garoppolo’s future became much more cloudy on Friday, even as the 49ers said otherwise.
The 49ers negotiated three choices in the first round and a 2022 in the third in order to move up to third place in the NFL’s 2021 Draft, apparently to choose a quarterback. The Niners insisted that they had no plans to negotiate with Garoppolo, their first full-back, but the rest of the NFL is not buying it.
“[Other] the teams believe that the second round of 2014 is available or at least will be available as soon as the Niners stop bluffing, “wrote Atlético’s Jeff Howe on Friday.” The 49ers-Dolphins switch will keep teams checking on Garoppolo’s availability. “
Howe wrote that the New England Patriots, a former Garoppolo team, “were planning to monitor Garoppolo’s availability” ahead of Friday’s blockbuster. The Patriots love the quarterbacks in this year’s draft, but the 49ers move up the draft means that they – or another team – will have to negotiate with the Atlanta Falcons in 4th place overall to ensure they are able to select one of the top four signal callers in the draft. draft. Howe wrote that writing Alabama quarterback Mac Jones would require negotiation up to the 15th position, and the Pats must choose the 15th overall position.
“If their hope was to write a QB, Friday’s negotiations made that journey much more difficult,” Howe wrote of the Patriots. “If the ideal scenario involved Garoppolo, the door could have opened a little more.”
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The Patriots rehired Cam Newton for an incentive deal worth up to $ 14 million, but his $ 5.1 million base salary means that New England is not necessarily closed this offseason. The links between Garoppolo and the Pats, who recruited him in 2014, existed before Friday and are unlikely to be diminished anytime soon.
The 49ers are about to draft a QB in the first round for the first time since Alex Smith was chosen No. 1 overall in 2005. Smith did not start immediately that season, but it does not appear that the 49ers’ competitors believe The next quarterback in the San Francisco franchise will have the same fate.
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