The San Francisco 49ers have one of the strangest quarterback situations in the league heading into the 2022 NFL season.
Veteran quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo helped lead the team to the NFC Championship game last season but ultimately fell short against the eventual Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams.
Despite this, it was expected that Garoppolo would either head to the bench in favor of second-year quarterback Trey Lance or be traded before the 2022 NFL season.
The team invested a ton in the 2021 NFL Draft to move up and get Lance, but he was used sparingly in his first season, only starting in two games.
NFL insider Matt Lombardo believes that the organization may think that Lance might not be ready to be handed the reigns just yet. He took to Twitter on Thursday to reply to a comment on the 49ers potentially keeping Garoppolo next season, and said that murmurs around the 49ers organization are that they are underwhelmed by Lance to this point.
“I have heard that the 49ers staff has been continually underwhelmed by Trey Lance.”
I have heard that the #49ers’ staff has been continually underwhelmed by Trey Lance … https://t.co/BfypDIHzXo
— Matt Lombardo 🏈 (@MattLombardoNFL) May 5, 2022
It is worth noting that there are certainly conflicting reports around this.
NFL insider Jay Glazer said back in February in an interview that he has heard that the 49ers are “enamored” with Lance.
It is unclear exactly what is true, but it makes you wonder why the 49ers still have Garoppolo on the roster if the plan is to give Lance the starting job.
Garoppolo is in the final year of his contract, and the team could save a whopping $23.6 million against their cap if they were to release him. Given that the 49ers have the least amount of cap space in the NFL for the 2022 season, you would think that they certainly need to clear some room. Releasing Garoppolo if their plan is to start Lance next year would almost single-handedly do that.
General manager John Lynch has been adamant that Garoppolo will not be released, and will either be traded or play for the 49ers next year. The team could just be waiting until closer to training camp to move Garoppolo since he is coming off off-season shoulder surgery, but it certainly could be possible that the 49ers aren’t quite comfortable handing over the starting job to Lance just yet.
