It has been long anticipated that the San Francisco 49ers would be moving on from Jimmy Garoppolo at some point this offseason, but 49ers owner Jed York gave some surprising comments regarding his former starting quarterback on Friday.
While discussing Garoppolo in an interview with The Athletic, York stated that the organization would be happy to keep the veteran quarterback on their roster.
“I’ve said this before, you can’t have enough good quarterbacks and good football players, said York via Tim Kawakami of The Athletic. “I’m not going to get into roster discussions and what John and Kyle want to do. But I will support them in sort of anything that they want to make this team as good as it can possibly be.
“I watched it with Joe (Montana) and Steve (Young) and I realize the salary cap is different today than having no salary cap. But we’ve said it before: We’re happy to keep Jimmy. We’re happy to have him on the roster. And if that’s the case, then that’s the case.”
With less than a month before the start of the 2022-23 NFL season, that may be looking more and more like a reality unless the 49ers are willing to just release Garoppolo.
It has already been made clear that the Cleveland Browns have no interest in trading for Garoppolo following the announcement of Deshaun Watson’s official suspension length of 11 games.
Other teams already seem to have their quarterback situation figured out, so barring a significant injury before the start of the season, it seems unlikely that any team is willing to trade for Jimmy G.
The 49ers will need to make a decision on Garoppolo before September 10th, when his $24.3 million contract will be fully guaranteed to him.
Plenty can change before the start of the regular season, but it seems that things may be trending towards Garoppolo remaining on the 49ers roster next season.
[The Athletic, Pro Football Talk]
