Former Niners Player Believes Jimmy G Delayed Surgery to Diminish His Trade Value

Former offensive lineman Joe Staley isn’t buying the timing of Jimmy G’s surgery.

Everyone expects San Francisco to trade Garoppolo in the coming weeks, and Staley believes that transitioning to Trey Lance is probably the right move for the team. Garoppolo underwent shoulder surgery this week, and many feel that has diminished his trade value—or at least raised some concern for interested teams.

Staley wonders if that was the plan.

“I think Jimmy is playing, right now, a little bit of the business game,” Staley said after admitting that he has not heard a lot about Garoppolo from his former team, so he doesn’t have any insider info. “They drafted a quarterback last year, third overall. I know Jimmy is a great guy, didn’t make anything public, and is not going to split the team in any way or any capacity, but it probably felt a certain way to him that they would draft a guy to take over his role.

“So I think he’s a little bit upset with that business aspect of it, and I think the timing of his surgery, right now, is a little bit of the business aspect to it, saying, ‘All right, you’re going to try to trade me? Well, I don’t want to get traded, so I’m going to try to maybe diminish my trade value a little bit with this timing of this shoulder surgery.'”

Staley doesn’t feel holding onto Garoppolo would be the right move for the Niners.

Instead he feels the 49ers have to get something of value for the quarterback while they still can.

That will allow the team to keep its own young stars while adding more talent around Lance. Jimmy G is one smart cookie.

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