Report: Niners QB Jimmy Garoppolo Delayed His Much Needed Shoulder Surgery to Avoid Being Traded

We’ve been hearing about this Jimmy G story for a while now.

San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is all about executing a game plan, and apparently his game plan not be traded worked out perfectly.    According to The Athletic, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo delayed having offseason shoulder surgery to avoid being traded. Everyone expected Jimmy G to be traded at some point before the season kicked off, but Garoppolo surprised many earlier in the week agreeing to a restructured contract to remain with the Niners to be Trey Lance‘s backup.

Via The Athletic:

“The new deal still allows him to hit the free agency market in 2023, which has been Garoppolo’s focus all along,” Howe and Barrows said. “It’s the reason he had his shoulder repaired in March, which essentially scuttled any chance the team had of trading the quarterback.”

While appearing on the I Am Athlete podcast, San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan sounded like a man who did not expect Garoppolo to be on the roster come Week 1.

“You gotta make tough decisions in this business. The more you learn about salary cap. The more you learn about how to keep ahold of your players. I thought Jimmy played great during that Super Bowl year. But I also know how good of a team we had.

They were young, and it gets harder and harder to keep these guys. Going forward, we realized how hard it would be to keep Deebo, and sign guys like Fred [Warner], like [George] Kittle. We know we’re going to end up paying [Nick] Bosa a lot of money.

So you look at all that stuff, and getting a guy on a rookie quarterback was a big part of that. And I love that we’re giving a good team to Trey, so he doesn’t have to do that on his own. Just like I didn’t believe Jimmy had to. You try to build a team to where it’s not just about the quarterback.”

If the Niners flat out released Garoppolo, he may have ended up playing in Seattle, and San Francisco general manager John Lynch reportedly wasn’t keen on the Seahawks landing him.

It sounds like a good deal for both the Niners and Jimmy G. given the fact no one wanted to trade for him, but ideally the Niners would have liked Trey Lance to not have to think about Jimmy G being his backup.

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