The public confidence of the 49ers organization in defender Jimmy Garoppolo makes it more difficult to determine how they can behave in an unusually active defender market. While Deshaun Watson’s exchange request placed a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and other veteran defenders on teams looking to turn the page in that position, San Francisco’s moves under the center this year may be less dramatic than send Garoppolo in favor of a new departure.
Coach Kyle Shanahan, at his season-ending press conference, told reporters he believes Garoppolo is part of the team’s core.
“Yes, I want Jimmy back at our center. I’m glad he’s not a free agent, ”said Shanahan.
This was in line with what he said after the team’s victory in Week 16 over the Cardinals when asked about Garoppolo’s future, saying he expected Garoppolo to be the starter, but the team would not leave an obvious update.
“Now, you look at each avenue and see if there is anything out there that can make you much better, it is the same answer for all positions,” said Shanahan in late December. “But look at Jimmy, see what he did, see where he is with us financially and we better have a very good answer if you’re going to find something better than that, because Jimmy showed in a year that he’s a guy who can help us take to the Super Bowl and I also think Jimmy will get much better the more he plays. “
It seems that the 49ers are happy with Garoppolo, maintaining their choices in the draft and improving a list that should lose several players in a year in which the salary cap could become an obstacle in retaining important free agents. A Watson operation could be an obstacle to these plans, but let’s assume for a moment that this is not on the table.
Just because Garoppolo can return as a starter in 2021 does not mean that there are no quarterback moves to be made. San Francisco struggled last season when backups Nick Mullens and CJ Beathard played, and both are ready to hit the open market in the off-season. Mullens is restricted, while Beathard is due to the unrestricted free agency.
Shanahan was more open to the possibility of making changes to the reserve defender’s location for the first time since 2017.
“So, you have to look at everything when trying to fill out a list of quarterbacks,” said Shanahan. “We have a full-back, but to find out where these guys will be, we have to get or rehearse the guys we have or see if we can update them through the draft or free agency. To do this, you have to evaluate everything, to know how to stack them and other things. So we will definitely see a lot more of this stuff this year than we did last year. “
This is where things get particularly interesting for 49ers. The reserve quarterback is an unusually important place in his squad, given Garoppolo’s injury history. He lost 23 of the team’s last 48 games in the regular season. In part because of these injuries, it has not yet established itself as the team’s long-term response at the center.
The risk of running out of the starting quarterback in the middle of a playoff window is too high for 49ers to simply fill the quarterback list with cheap alternative options. In addition, if Garoppolo does not answer some of the lingering questions about his ability to properly handle the 49ers’ attack consistently, they need to start exploring life options after Garoppolo.
Finding solutions to these two major quarterback issues is more urgent for San Francisco than leaving Garoppolo.
They have choice number 12 and enough capital to be able to climb the board for a player in this year’s draft class who could solve the reserve and long-term QB problem all at once.
Or they can recruit a quarterback and go after a free agent like Jacoby Brissett or Ryan Fitzpatrick in an attempt to immediately update the QB2 position. Neither Fitzpatrick, nor Brissett, nor any accessible free agent quarterback will take the 49ers to the Super Bowl, but they would be able to win games if Garoppolo was unavailable for an extended period of time.
Exact moves and choices can be debated, but the general point is that the 49ers quarterback’s room will probably look very different last season, even if they didn’t leave Garoppolo. In fact, reinforcing the depth chart behind Garoppolo is probably a higher priority than setting up a deal for a new beginner.
Given how little the 49ers were willing to put on the table in Matthew Stafford’s business negotiations – a report said they didn’t make an official offer since the first round’s choices were on the table – it’s hard to imagine outside Watson that they win very involved in other potentially available veteran signal callers.
The expected changes will come to the 49ers quarterback room this off-season, but that will not affect Garoppolo’s departure from the Bay Area.