Getty Jimmy Garoppolo during the NFC wildcard round in Dallas on January 16, 2022.
One man close to Jimmy Garoppolo can reveal some truths and in the process, crush any rumor involving his client’s pending 2022 future.
Don Yee, the agent representing the San Francisco 49ers quarterback, finally broke his silence and held a conversation with NFL insider Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network on the morning of Monday, July 11. Yee not only detailed the health status of the 30-year-old signal caller, but addressed a report involving a potential trade suitor in the NFC South.
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Yee Shares Shoulder Update & Speaks Out About Report
Yee first explained to Pelissero that the plan to have Garoppolo start throwing the football post shoulder surgery sometime in July is still on schedule.
“He’s progressing well and on schedule,” Yee said of the 49ers quarterback. “We’re optimistic about the upcoming season.”
Garoppolo opted to undergo shoulder surgery in March — nearly a month after the NFC title game loss to the Los Angeles Rams. While Garoppolo was nursing and rehabbing his ailment, other quarterbacks began to find new homes via trade: Russell Wilson to Denver, Carson Wentz to Washington, Matt Ryan to Indianapolis and on Wednesday, July 6, Baker Mayfield to Carolina. But Garoppolo remained neutral to S.F. amid the quarterback movements going on in the NFL.
There was, however, one report that surfaced on Friday, July 8 that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers became a team of interest for Garoppolo’s services. Mentioned in this Heavy on 49ers story, radio personality and former NFL defensive lineman Dan Sileo told Grant Cohn of Sports Illustrated that the Bucs would like to have Jimmy G as their backup, even saying how Garoppolo and his former New England Patriots teammate Tom Brady still remain friends and “text each other all the time.”
Yee revealed if there was any truth to that report and if he did speak to Sileo directly.
“Over the weekend, a report came out that asserted that I had spoken to a media member about his future, but the report was false,” Yee said.
Could Trade Value Speed up?
While the Bucs have become a team that Yee denies having any interest in Garoppolo, the next question becomes how soon can a trade become orchestrated?
To reiterate, Yee says his client is on track to throw again in front of NFL personnel. But a key reason behind the hold up, Pelissero mentioned, was that some executives were away from the office. Now, with training camps starting up later in July (the 49ers start camp on July 26), Pelissero gave a timeframe of when a Garoppolo trade could happen.
“Team execs are just starting to come back from vacation. Most training camps open in two weeks, and the expectation within the league continues to be that Garoppolo is traded — somewhere — by the end of the month,” Pelissero said.
If it’s end of July, a team could add Garoppolo after wrapping up their first five days of camp and add some insurance or an upgrade. Two teams that have continuously surfaced as tradable destinations for Garoppolo are the Cleveland Browns (dependent on the future of Deshaun Watson) and the New York Jets (labeled as a possible trade partner by Maurice Moton of Bleacher Report due to Garoppolo’s tie-ins with members of the Jets coaching staff).