Getty 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo and head coach Kyle Shanahan
John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan are not messing around.
As first reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Friday, the San Francisco 49ers have acquired the No. 3 overall pick in April’s NFL Draft from the Miami Dolphins. In exchange, the Niners have surrendered their original No. 12 overall pick, a 2022 third-rounder (Robert Saleh compensatory selection) and a first-round pick in both 2022 and 2023.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, this will mark just the fifth time in the Common Draft Era (since 1967) that San Francisco will draft in the top three, most recently in 2019 for Nick Bosa.
The 49ers have picked in the Top-3 four previous times in the Common Draft Era (since 1967):
– Nick Bosa (No. 2 in 2019)
– Solomon Thomas (No. 3 in 2017)
– Alex Smith (No. 1 in 2005)
– Steve Spurrier (No. 3 in 1967) https://t.co/cjHuBwQr3W— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 26, 2021
The move almost guarantees San Francisco will add a new rookie quarterback next month. While it remains to be seen which of talented passers will be on the board after consensus top pick Trevor Lawrence, early speculation lends itself to a toss-up between North Dakota State’s Trey Lance or Ohio State’s Justin Fields. The latter of whom has been training at a facility heavily linked to 49ers coaches.
49ers have been attempting to move into top five picks for several weeks now, per sources. They discussed trading up with Dolphins at 3, Falcons at 4, Bengals at 5 and ultimately decided to go as high as they could, per sources. There were no trade-up talks with the Jets at 2.
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Twitter Goes Bonkers Over Franchise-Altering Trade
As expected, NFL media and fans erupted over arguably the most surprising move of the NFL offseason thus far. Niners All-Pro tight end George Kittle may have even summed it up best with a simple “Oh wow” reply to Schefter’s news break.
Here was just a sample of what others were feeling in response to Friday’s megadeal:
George Kittle, Brandon Aiyuk, and Deebo Samuel when the 49ers draft a QB at No. 3
Shanahan and McVay, making consecutive Super Bowls: “look at what we can do with average QB play”
The Vikings, Browns, Titans: “Wow! We should do that too!”
Shanahan and McVay: “lmao wait never mind this sucks, let’s go get good QBs”
KYLE SHANAHAN JUST PUT HIS NUTS ON THE TABLE.
49ers faithful are still expected to hear from both Lynch and Shanahan very soon as their previously scheduled pre-draft press conference remains scheduled for Monday, March 29.
What’s Next for Jimmy Garoppolo?
Even with 49ers brass having held firm on keeping Jimmy Garoppolo as their 2021 starting quarterback in recent weeks, Friday’s trade runs counter to the idea — or at the very least makes the possibility of trading the oft-injured 29-year-old more likely. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case at the moment.
According to Schefter, San Francisco has “no plans to trade him.” In a follow-up tweet, Schefter also quoted a team source who said, “Jimmy is here to stay. He’s our guy this year.”
NFL Network’s Steve Wyche, who was in contact with Lynch immediately following the trade, reported that the Niners general manager told him this:
“Yes we decided to go ahead and do this, once it was finalized the first thing we did was call Jimmy Garoppolo to let him know he’s still in our plans,” via NFL reporter Dov Kleiman on Twitter.
While keeping Garoppolo around to hopefully compete for a championship next season while the No. 3 rookie develops behind the scenes is a logical outlook, many around the football world aren’t buying San Fran’s potential smokescreen.
Jimmy G staying in SF? Yeah right. #moredealscoming
Y’all are having fun with speculation, but…
Trading Garoppolo prior to June 1 could net the team $23.6 million in cap space, in addition to whatever assets another team is willing to pay for the two-time Super Bowl champion. However, with the free agent talent pool dwindling and Trent Williams having already re-signed, the financial benefit may not be as impactful as it could have been a week or two ago. At present, the 49ers have approximately $19.7 million in spending power per Over The Cap, with Garoppolo under contract through next season at respective cap hits of $26.4 million and $27 million.
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Chris Licata is an NFL contributor covering the San Francisco 49ers. Follow him on Twitter @Chris__Licata or join the Heavy on 49ers Facebook community for the latest out of the Bay Area!