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Why it's Looking Increasingly Likely the 49ers Will Trade Jimmy Garoppolo to the Browns

The 49ers probably wouldn't get much in return for Garoppolo -- maybe a sixth-round draft pick. But at least they could say they traded him and didn't release him.
Grant Cohn|
Why it's Looking Increasingly Likely the 49ers Will Trade Jimmy Garoppolo to the Browns
Why it's Looking Increasingly Likely the 49ers Will Trade Jimmy Garoppolo to the Browns

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San Francisco 49ers

Finally, the quarterback market might break the 49ers' way.

The NFL reportedly wants to suspend Deshaun Watson indefinitely and for a minimum of one year. If the NFL succeeds, the Browns will need a quarterback. And Baker Mayfield probably isn't the answer for them, considering he requested a trade.

Enter the 49ers and Jimmy Garoppolo.

If Watson gets suspended for a full season, the Browns won't have to pay him for a full 12 months, and that means they could afford to pay Jimmy Garoppolo for one year, which is all he has left on his contract.

Theoretically, if/when the NFL suspends Watson, the Browns could trade Mayfield to the Seattle Seahawks, who desperately need a starting quarterback, and the 49ers could trade Jimmy Garoppolo to the Cleveland Browns, who would rent him for one year.

The 49ers probably wouldn't get much in return for Garoppolo -- maybe a sixth-round draft pick. But at least they could say they traded him and didn't release him.

This scenario all depends on the Browns convincing themselves that they can win with Jimmy Garoppolo. Ideally, they would simply keep Baker Mayfield, who has more talent and is younger than Garoppolo, but that relationship seems broken beyond repair. So Garoppolo might be Cleveland's best option.

Still, before the Browns make a move, they should know the real reason the 49ers are getting rid of Garoppolo, the real reason they traded up for Trey Lance in the first place. And it's not because Garoppolo gets injured sometimes.

It's because Garoppolo is the worst downfield passer in the NFL. In his entire career, he has attempted only 30 that traveled at least 30 yards downfield, and has completed a pathetic five of them, while throwing five interceptions and just one touchdown pass. That means when Garoppolo throws downfield, he's just as likely to complete the pass to the other team as he is to his own.

Good for the 49ers if they get anything in return for him.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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