Why the 49ers Could Keep Jimmy Garoppolo Until Training Camp

With no trade in sight, there is now a scenario where Jimmy Garoppolo remains on the 49ers until training camp.

Attempting to trade Jimmy Garoppolo has been a failure for the 49ers.

Many of the quarterback needy teams that seemed like potential suitors for Garoppolo prior to free agency are now gone. The Steelers, Colts, Saints, and Commanders have their quarterback for the 2022 season. All that remains is the Seahawks, which the 49ers will certainly not trade him to.

There is no market for Garoppolo, so all the 49ers have left is to cut him to free up salary cap space for free agents. At least, that is something they should do, but won't. It is clear that free agency is something the 49ers are not considering as crucial to retool their team. Otherwise, Garoppolo would have been cut by now.

Since free agency isn't important to the 49ers, there is now a scenario where the 49ers could keep Garoppolo until training camp. 

With his market completely eradicated, if there ever was one, the 49ers could keep Garoppolo with the hopes and dreams that there will be a suitor. Anything can happen from now until training camp like injuries or in-house drama like the Browns with Baker Mayfield. That is what the 49ers could be keying in on with the hope that a market for Garoppolo will be resurrected.

It is very possible that this can happen and a waiting game that the 49ers could be willing to play. They have shown that they are in no rush to get rid of Garoppolo nor bring in free agents. Again, if that mattered, he would've been cut by now. Instead, the 49ers are playing with some contracts on their roster by restructuring them to give themselves cap space right now. They're doing all that for the sake of keeping Garoppolo aboard.

This plan, the way the 49ers are going about this is so stubborn. They cannot accept that their own value of Garoppolo was light years beyond what every other team's was. No one was ever going to trade draft capital and surrender a large chunk of their cap space to take on an average quarterback who can't throw until training camp. It would be completely inadvisable for a team to do so.

Garoppolo's true market is if he is a free agent where a team doesn't have to forfeit draft picks and can sign him at a smaller number. The best thing the 49ers can do right now is to cut him and go look at free agents who can improve the team like another edge rusher opposite of Nick Bosa or a vertical threatening wide receiver. 

Literally anything is a better use of cap space than holding onto Garoppolo JUST to get adequate draft capital. But the 49ers will not accept the image of cutting Garoppolo nor trading him for so little. 

Clinging onto Garoppolo until training camp is certainly a possibility and it grows likelier by the day.