The clock is ticking for the 49ers to make a move with Jimmy Garoppolo as the 30-year-old quarterback remains on their roster.
As the options have slowly been yanked off petal by petal throughout the offseason, only three remain: Trade him, cut him or keep him.
But to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, one of those doesn’t appear to be a possibility anymore.
“Obviously, he is not their future quarterback, they have made it abundantly clear that it is going to be Trey Lance,” Rapoport said on Friday. “Are the 49ers going to be able to trade him and his $20-plus million salary? My understanding is that a trade partner, as of right now, does not exist.”
So, if the 49ers can’t trade Garoppolo, they’ll have to cut him or find a way to somehow keep him on the roster.
On Thursday, former NFL executive Mike Lombardi detailed why, citing sources, Garoppolo is caught in a sticky situation.
“I keep asking teams all the time, why don’t they just cut Jimmy G now?” Lombardi said on “The GM Shuffle” podcast (h/t 95.7 The Game). “And the answer that I got back from multiple teams is, ‘They don’t want him to go to Seattle.’ I said, ‘Well how interested is Seattle in Jimmy G?’ And [one source] said, ‘Oh, they’re very interested in him.’
“So for all the talk about Geno [Smith], for all the talk about Drew Lock, I think Seattle knows they’re going to get Jimmy G. And I think San Francisco knows that he could go there. So they’re trying everything in their power to prevent that, and they have no takers.”
There’s also a chance Garoppolo could stay in the Bay and make the final 53-man roster, even after the 49ers searched for his next home all offseason.
NFL insider Adam Schefter broke down what could happen if the 49ers decide to keep him.
“The 49ers are going to have to decide whether or not they are willing to keep — yes, keep — Jimmy Garoppolo,” Schefter said on ESPN’s “NFL Live” on Thursday. “And Jimmy Garoppolo is going to have to decide whether he’s willing to restructure his contract and stay in San Francisco, or whether he wants to move on and become a free agent. Both sides are going to have a say in how this works out. It might just be that the best scenario is for both sides to work together to stay together for this year, so that the 49ers can have a capable No. 2 quarterback backing up Trey Lance.”
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As the circus continues, one thing is for certain — an answer must come, and it must come soon.
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