Why Peter King Believes Jimmy Garoppolo Will be the 49ers Week 1 Starter
Here's how you know Jimmy Garoppolo probably will be the 49ers Week 1 starter next season:
Peter King thinks he will be.
No one is more connected to the 49ers front office than King, whom General manager John Lynch invited into the 49ers draft room in 2017 so King could document Lynch and Kyle Shanahan's first draft together.
King recently went on the Rich Eisen Show and explained why he expects the 49ers will stick with Garoppolo for another season:
"You have to logically look at Jimmy Garoppolo, and say, 'Unless there's a great offer or a great something out there, we're going to stick with Garoppolo, and he's going to be really good, and we're going to be happy with it. It will be fine.'
"But you can't ignore the injuries. You just can't. So I think that if a golden opportunity came up, they'd think about it. But I kind of agree with you, Rich. I think Jimmy Garoppolo's going to be the quarterback of the Niners (on) opening day."
Extremely interesting statement by King. Here's how I interpret it:
1. Garoppolo is not "really good," nor will the 49ers "be happy with it" if he returns. Not Kyle Shanahan, at least. That man cannot hide his contempt for Garoppolo. Shanahan is stuck with him.
2. Garoppolo has no trade market, because he's not young, mobile, durable, cost effective or particularly good at anything. He's a system quarterback who makes way too much money and gets injured a lot, and the whole league knows it. There never was going to be a "great offer" for him this offseason. Teams probably expect the 49ers to cut him.
3. The 49ers don't want to cut Garoppolo, because releasing him would be an admission that signing him to a five-year, $137.5 million extension after just five starts in 2017 was a big mistake. And the 49ers rarely admit to making big mistakes.
4. The 49ers will keep Garoppolo for one more year to save face, even though keeping him probably will cost them Trent Williams or Jason Verrett in free agency. The 49ers most likely can't afford to keep those two AND Garoppolo, which is too bad for the 49ers, because both of those players are better than Garoppolo.
5. The 49ers would rather run it back with Garoppolo and potentially have another losing season in which he gets injured than be bold, cut him and sign someone cheaper and better such as Ryan Fitzpatrick.
I really hope my interpretation is wrong, because it would be such a shame for them to lose good players just to keep Garoppolo.
I'm usually not wrong, though.
