The 49ers gave up a ton of draft capital to trade up to the No. 3 spot in the draft, and it sure looks like they’ll be selecting a quarterback next month.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean Jimmy Garoppolo isn’t still in their future plans.
Garoppolo has been their starting quarterback since the team traded for him in the middle of the 2017 season, although injuries have prevented him from being on the field as much as the team probably would have liked. Not only that, he was abysmal in the fourth quarter of the biggest game of his life — Super Bowl LIV — being a major reason why the 49ers choked away a title by getting outscored 21-0 in the final stanza. All in all, the 49ers chapter in Garoppolo’s book hasn’t been much to write home about (no pun intended).
And given that Kyle Shanahan has never really had the opportunity to draft and develop a top-tier prospect, there’d been some talk about him possibly doing so this year, with the team having the No. 12 pick in the draft. Sure enough, they traded up on Friday, and it looks like they’ll be doing exactly that, putting themselves in the mix for Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Justin Fields or Trey Lance (whomever falls to them). But the 49ers don’t plan to move Garoppolo, and in fact, he’s still on track to be the starter heading into next season, according to a report from Ian Rapoport, who shared some details on “NFL Total Access.”
We could easily envision Jimmy G starting the season, but not finishing it — either getting hurt, or being benched for performance reasons (which happened last season after a poor performance against the Dolphins).
