After falling short in the NFC Championship Game, the San Francisco 49ers are ready to move on from their starting quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo. This doesn’t really come as surprise to anyone since head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch traded away their future for quarterback Trey Lance.
It doesn’t make much sense for a team to give up on a quarterback who has led his team to the Super Bowl and another conference championship, but the 49ers don’t have much of a choice now.
Once the season ended, Garoppolo spoke with reporters and said that he mentioned to John Lynch about finding the right destination for him to play next season. “Was talking to John yesterday just about finding the right destination and whatever the future holds, just doing it the right way. Got a long career ahead of me so I’m excited about it, excited about the opportunities to come,” Garoppolo said.
Garoppolo also added, “I just want to go to a place where they want to win, that’s really what I’m in this game for.”
There is one franchise that is dying to win — the Denver Broncos.
The Broncos became the first and only franchise ever to win a Super Bowl and not make it back to the playoffs for the following six seasons. The organization knows and understands that horrific stat. After newly hired general manager George Paton failed to make the postseason in his first season as the captain of the ship, he knows that the clock is starting to tick.
Denver has gone through 11 starting quarterbacks since Peyton Manning rode off into the sunset after his Super Bowl 50 victory. So why not make a hard push for Garoppolo?
The 30-year old quarterback has proven that he can win in this league and win in the playoffs. Garoppolo has a career record of 33-14 with a playoff record of 4-2. In those four playoff wins, he has beaten Kirk Cousins, Dak Prescott, and Aaron Rodgers twice. His only two losses came against Matthew Stafford and Patrick Mahomes, who would go on and win the Super Bowl in those seasons.
There’s also another reason why Garoppolo makes sense in Denver, he will be running the west coast offense.
While Garoppolo was in San Francisco, he played in the west coast system under head coach Kyle Shanahan and succeeded in it. With a record of 31-14, completing 67 percent of his passes, and throwing 66 touchdowns to just 38 interceptions.
Newly hired Denver head coach, Nathaniel Hackett said he will be calling plays on offense and has praised the west coast offense. Hackett has worked with Aaron Rodgers over the last three seasons with Matt LaFleur calling plays. LaFleur comes from the coaching tree of Mike and Kyle Shanahan. Since then, Hackett has adapted the offense and knows that this system works in today’s NFL.
It does sound like the 49ers will do right by Garoppolo and mutually agree to send him to a destination where he can succeed and they can get good value in return.
Everyone has connected Aaron Rodgers to the Broncos because of how talented their weapons are on offense. With a wide receiving core of Courtland Sutton, Jerry Jeudy, Time Patrick, and K.J. Hamler, Garoppolo and every quarterback would look at that position room and be in heaven.
Don’t forget about former first round pick Noah Fant at the tight end position along with second-year running back Javonte Williams, who ran for 900 yards while splitting time with Melvin Gordon.
Not only does Denver have the talent, but they have a top 10 pick including five picks in the top 96 and around $40 million in cap space next year.
Those draft picks would be enticing for the 49ers after they traded multiple first-round picks to move up to the third-overall pick in last year’s draft. San Francisco currently won’t have a first-round pick, but will have a second-rounder and multiple third-rounders because Mike McDaniel was hired by the Dolphins as a minority coach.
Denver’s plan is to take a big swing at the top veteran quarterbacks. Everything is still up in the air for Rodgers and the Packers, it’s unclear if Russell Wilson becomes available, and Kirk Cousins isn’t leaving Minnesota. They most reasonable option for the Broncos is to make a deal for one of the most underrated quarterbacks in the NFL today and that’s Jimmy Garoppolo.
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