We’ve reached the “asking price” phase of the Jimmy Garoppolo trade saga.
The San Francisco 49ers reportedly would need a first-round pick before considering making Garoppolo available in a trade, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer wrote Wednesday afternoon. The Niners thus far have insisted they want to keep Garoppolo despite recently trading up for the No. 3 spot in the 2021 NFL Draft, in which many expect they will select a quarterback.
Here’s an excerpt from Breer’s column:
I was told that, yes, it’d take a first-round pick for the Niners to listen at this point, which of course would be nice for San Francisco to have after it yielded its firsts in 2022 and ’23 to jump from No. 12 to 3. That, of course, is subject to change. Maybe a veteran stopgap they see as comparable to Garoppolo could come along, and they’d then be motivated to move him (I’m not sure who that would be). Maybe the rookie will arrive and blow everyone away over the summer, and the Niners will want to play him.
As it stands right now? I don’t think the Niners feel any sort of urgency to move Garoppolo, which makes his market value completely irrelevant in comparison to the Niners’ price.
Make of that what you will. That price seems steep, and Breer himself said it could change. We’ll see.
As for whether a trade eventually happens, it might come down to how Garoppolo feels about the situation in San Francisco. At this point, it’s hard to get a good read on where his head is at.
Of course, many in the football world believe this story ultimately ends with Jimmy Garoppolo in a New England Patriots uniform.
