The noise around Jimmy Garoppolo’s future as the 49ers’ starting quarterback continues to grow louder as the team’s struggles persist following such a productive 2019 season. Offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey strongly pushed back on the rumors the 49ers might move on from Garoppolo after this season, and told 95.7 The Game that he remains confident in his QB.
“In Jimmy’s first full season healthy as a starter, he took us to the damn Super Bowl,” McGlinchey said Wednesday. “... Jimmy’s a winner and he’s a leader on our football team, and nobody pays attention to that stuff because we know what we have in No. 10, and he hopefully will not go anywhere for a long time.
“I think that’s the same message that anybody on our team will say, and you can talk to anybody in our organization, and they know the trust and faith that we have in No. 10, and the kind of man and kind of player he is.”
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Garoppolo is among the many 49ers players that have spent time on injured reserve this season, as he battled a nagging ankle injury first suffered in a Week 2 win over the New York Jets. Jimmy G was shut down and placed on injured reserve after going 11 of 16 for 84 yards and an interception in a Week 8 loss in Seattle.
Coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch both have put their public support behind Jimmy G this season through this tough season, but Lynch also has sent scouts to get in-person looks at some of the nation’s top collegiate quarterbacks in the upcoming draft class. The 49ers’ flirtation with free agent Tom Brady this offseason also made many question whether Garoppolo indeed is viewed as the future of the franchise.
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Garoppolo certainly is paid like a franchise QB, as he’ll have a cap hit worth over $25 million in each of the next two seasons. With most of his guaranteed money from the initial contract already doled out, it wouldn’t be as prohibitively expensive to part ways with him as it might have been before this season.
Unless a perfect scenario emerges in the draft or a potential trade (which Garoppolo would have to sign off on), it seems likely that he will be returning to the 49ers next season. But for a franchise looking to win Super Bowls, Shanahan and Lynch will have to decide this offseason whether Garoppolo is the QB that can accomplish that mission, even after he came so close last season.