When you’re the starting quarterback for an NFL team and the team that employs you makes it known that they intend to draft a quarterback with a Top 5 pick in that year’s NFL Draft, it’s only natural for you to believe your time with that team is coming to an end sooner than later.
That was a reality Jimmy Garoppolo certainly thought about when the San Francisco 49ers selected Trey Lance with the No. 3 overall pick this spring. Garoppolo could have requested a trade elsewhere with Lance the obvious successor to his current role as starter. Instead, Garoppolo wanted to keep pushing forward with the 49ers.
But that doesn’t mean the thought didn’t cross his mind.
“Oh, no doubt,” Garoppolo said, via Albert Breer of SI.com. “Especially when they first told me, you started imagining situations that aren’t even possible. It crossed my mind at one point. But I didn’t want to do that. I like it here. I like the people. I like the teammates that I’m around. It’s kind of where—I don’t want to say it’s where my career started, but as a starter this is where it was. These players, these teammates, I wouldn’t trade them for the world. I love these guys.”
The legitimacy of finding a trade for Garoppolo and his sizable salary coming off another injury-filled season may have been slim anyway. The 49ers have said they believe in Garoppolo as a player. That his record when he’s starting games has been plenty productive. The issue with Garoppolo has had comes down to availability due to missed games because of injury.
For the now, Lance serves as a reserve option that would seem to have a higher ceiling than Nick Mullens and C.J. Beathard have provided in recent seasons. Eventually, it will be Lance’s job. But Garoppolo says he is enjoying the present that’s in front of him with the 49ers.