The San Francisco 49ers have their quarterback of the future.
At least, that’s what many New England Patriots think.
On Tuesday evening, the 49ers dealt a second round pick for Patriots’ backup Jimmy Garoppolo, and NFL reporter Albert Breer joined Tolbert & Lund on KNBR to discuss the bombshell deal. Breer covers the Patriots closely, and he said that of the coaches and players he’s talked to within the New England organization, Garoppolo is viewed as a potential 10-year starter in the NFL.
“If Jimmy Garoppolo is who I know a lot of the people in the Patriots’ building feel like he is, which is a guy who can be your quarterback for the next 10 years, then the 49ers just stole Jimmy Garoppolo,” Breer said.
Since arriving in the league in 2014, Garoppolo has been perceived as the heir apparent to New England quarterback Tom Brady. But this season, Brady has showed no signs of wear and tear, and at the age of 40, Brady has publicly stated that he intends to play for a lot longer. Though Breer said a handful of NFL teams were trading for Garoppolo this offseason, it’s possible the Patriots hung onto him in case Brady didn’t meet expectations.
Now, with Brady playing well and Garoppolo still a valuable commodity, New England made a stunning decision to part with him.
“You go back to spring and I don’t think anybody had any feeling that they were moving him,” Breer said. “In fact, a couple of the teams that I talked to that needed quarterbacks back then were fully under the impression that Jimmy was just unavailable. The guys that I’ve talked to in that building that have played with him, that have coached him, all think the world of him. Going into the 2017 season, I think the idea was that for the first time, the door was really open for someone to come in and replace Tom Brady.”
Breer said perhaps the most surprising element of the trade was its timing, because had New England traded Garoppolo last spring or in the upcoming spring, the Patriots could have received more than the compensation the 49ers were willing to offer. Nevertheless, Bill Belichick has demonstrated an ability to turn draft picks into gold, and the 49ers struck when the time was right.
“The fact that they’re willing to move him for a two in the middle of the 2017 season when I believe in March or April if they had put him on the market they could have gotten a lot more than that, is probably the most surprising thing about this,” Breer said.
Breer said that while Garoppolo doesn’t have much NFL tape to go off of, the 49ers likely feel confident in their swap because of the success the quarterback has had in limited action and because of Kyle Shanahan’s prior evaluation on the Eastern Illinois product when he went through the draft process.
“Pull up the first half of the Miami Dolphins game in week two of 2016,” Breer said. “He got hurt in the first half of that game, but for two quarters, the way Jimmy Garoppolo ran that offense looked damn close to the way Tom Brady ran that offense. So I think now, the 49ers look at that and they look back at Kyle Shanahan’s evaluation of him when he was the Browns’ offensive coordinator in 2014 and say to themselves, we can project this guy to be a long-term answer for us at the most important position on the field.”
To listen to Breer’s full interview with Tolber & Lund, click the podcast link below. To listen to Breer’s comments on how the Patriots perceive Garoppolo, skip ahead to the 7:15 mark.