Skip to main content
All 49ers

Why the 49ers Might Trade for Teddy Bridgewater After June 1

The 49ers may have just tipped their hand.
Grant Cohn|
Why the 49ers Might Trade for Teddy Bridgewater After June 1
Why the 49ers Might Trade for Teddy Bridgewater After June 1

The 49ers may have just tipped their hand.

They say Jimmy Garoppolo will be their starting quarterback next season and they merely need "better options" backing him up. And then The Athletic reports that the 49ers called the Carolina Panthers about trading for quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.

Perhaps the 49ers see Bridgewater as the perfect backup for Garoppolo. But Bridgewater isn't cheap. He would cost them almost $18 million in 2021. Meaning the 49ers would spend almost $45 million -- more than 25 percent of their cap space -- on two average quarterbacks. Not smart.

If the 49ers acquire Bridgewater, he would replace Garoppolo, not back him up. So this report may reveal the 49ers' plans for next season.

Here's how I interpret this news.

1. The 49ers will draft a quarterback in Round 1 or Round 2 of the upcoming draft. Probably Round 1.

2. Once the 49ers draft a quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo will be reduced to the status of "bridge quarterback," and an expensive one. He no longer will be the franchise guy, and fans won't care if the team gets rid of him. They'll like the new guy.

3. The 49ers will have to decide whether they want to pay Garoppolo $27 million to be their bridge quarterback in 2021, or pay Teddy Bridgewater $18 million to do the same job. There isn't much difference between those two, anyway.

4. The Panthers will wait until June 1 to trade Bridgewater so they can save an additional $5 million in cap space.

5. By this time, most of the veteran free-agent quarterbacks such as Andy Dalton, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Cam Newton and Alex Smith will have signed with teams, so Bridgewater will be one of the 49ers' only remaining options.

6. After June 1, the 49ers will trade Mike McGlinchey and/or a third-round pick in 2022 to the Panthers for Bridgewater.

7. The 49ers will trade or release Garoppolo after June 1 so they can save an additional $1.4 million in cap space.

8. Bridgewater will play quarterback for the 49ers until the rookie is ready to replace him.

Let's see if I'm right.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
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.

Share on XFollow grantcohn
Home/News