Is it Carolina or Bust for the 49ers to Trade Jimmy Garoppolo?

The Carolina Panthers may be the last team who the San Francisco 49ers can try to trade Jimmy Garoppolo to.

A trade market for Jimmy Garoppolo is slim right now.

The San Francisco 49ers more likely than not will end up cutting him down the line. For now, they are still holding out hope that a team comes to tap them on the shoulder for services of Garoppolo.

One team that could end up tapping the Niners on the shoulder are the Carolina Panthers. They are the last team who are clearly in limbo at the quarterback position. Sam Darnold is not cemented to be their starter, so the Panthers are still keeping their options open as to where they could find their immediate answer. That answer at quarterback could be Garoppolo.

Is it Carolina or bust for the 49ers to trade Garoppolo?

One-thousand percent.

Barring an unfortunate injury around the league, there is no way to foresee where Garoppolo is going to get traded. If his market wasn't alive when there was an abundance of quarterback needy teams a month ago, then there is no reason to believe that his market will come alive over the next three months. 

The Panthers are the 49ers' last bet and there is no better time for the 49ers to ship Garoppolo off than the draft. I went into detail why the NFL draft is a fairly likely and the optimal time to get Garoppolo traded as a last ditch effort. And it sounds like the points I made in that article could ring true. Garoppolo could end up in Carolina should the Panthers elect to draft an offensive tackle with their first-round pick according to Albert Breer of The MMQB.

"But if one or more of the tackles are there (Ikem Ekwonu, Charles Cross, Evan Neal), it wouldn’t stun me, or others in the league, if the Panthers grit their teeth and go with the offensive lineman over the quarterback—with perhaps the idea that they could go and get Jimmy Garoppolo after the first round, or even Baker Mayfield, who’s been seen internally as a sort of redundant gamble to what the team did with Sam Darnold last year (and would probably require the Browns’ eating a whole bunch of his $18.858 million base)."

Carolina would likely opt for Garoppolo over Baker Mayfield even at Garoppolo's number. Like Breer mentioned, Mayfield and Darnold are similar or a "redundant gamble." Garoppolo, even with injury concerns, is a better player to go after considering who the Panthers just had. Not to mention that Panthers' receiver Robby Anderson is not a fan of Mayfield. If anything, the Panthers would request the 49ers eat some of Garoppolo's salary, which the 49ers will do to an extent. 

San Francisco better have their fingers crossed that one of those offensive tackles fall to the Panthers. It is the only way to keep a trade of Garoppolo alive and once this fails, then the 49ers will have no other choice than to cut him come training camp.