49ers General Manager John Lynch said recently that he has no doubt that a healthy Jimmy Garoppolo will be the team’s starting quarterback for the 2021 season, but added that Garoppolo’s injury history means that the team has to have “better options” to back him up than they did last year.
One of the options they are reportedly looking into spent the 2020 season as the starting quarterback in Carolina. Joseph Person of TheAthletic.com reports that the 49ers called the Panthers about a potential trade for Teddy Bridgewater.
There’s no word on whether the conversation reached a point where the teams were discussing an offer, but a move involving Bridgewater would come as no surprise. The team was reportedly willing to trade him to the Lions as part of their offer for Matthew Stafford and their interest in making a run at Deshaun Watson when and if he’s made available has come up on multiple occasions.
Bridgewater has a $17 million base salary and a cap hit of just under $23 million in 2021. A trade would leave $10 million in dead money on the Panther’s cap.