The Eagles Aren't Getting in the Jimmy G. Business
Jimmy Garoppolo to the Eagles?
Feel free to laugh out loud on that one.
The veteran 49ers quarterback is on his way out of San Francisco but reports of the Eagles’ interest in him are based on nothing more than the flimsy construct of supply and demand.
In other words, the Niners are clearly going to offer up Garoppolo to the quarterback market with Trey Lance waiting in the wings for that organization, and the Eagles are regarded as a team with demand at the game’s most important position despite the public support of Jalen Hurts from both Howie Roseman and Nick Sirianni after the season.
The next step was the plugged-in Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated connecting those two dots in his most recent column.
"While we’re there, it’s really hard to assess the trade value of Jimmy Garoppolo,” Breer wrote. "The reason? We still don’t know which quarterbacks are going to be available. There’s a good group of suitors out there ready to take a major swing at the position (the Broncos, Eagles, Panthers, and Commanders)."
Breer was simply musing about the upcoming QB market, which could be historic if players like Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Derek Carr, and Kirk Cousins are added to a legally-cleared Deshaun Watson, Jimmy G, and Jameis Winston, and the teams who will be and could be in the mix.
The Eagles are firmly in the “could be” camp despite the public support of Hurts in what was a successful first season as a starter which featured a playoff berth and an alternate Pro Bowl designation for an evolving player who won’t turn 24 until August.
Many have taken Breer’s description of the upcoming landscape as some kind of confirmation that the Eagles will have interest in Garoppolo, who is under contract through 2022 to the tune of $25 million versus Hurts entering the third year of his rookie deal with a $1,643,230 cap hit.
Even if you believe Garoppolo is an upgrade over Hurts on the field and that’s very debatable, when you factor in the finances it’s laughable to believe Roseman of all people would even entertain getting in the Jimmy G. business.
And we haven’t even gotten to the point that the Eagles would have to send some kind of assets to San Francisco to get Garoppolo.
The Eagles will only get in the QB conversation for that "major swing" that Breer described (think Wilson or a cleared Watson), not a lateral move at 15 times the cost.
Aggregation that lacks context is about as dangerous as it gets in journalism.
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on both PhillyVoice.com and YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
