Jimmy Garoppolo made on only two starts since being selected in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft, but his worth was evident to the 49ers, who gave up a 2018 second-round draft pick for him on Monday. Garoppolo’s promise as a franchise quarterback begs the question why the 49ers did not have to give up more for him and Adam Schefter shared his thoughts on the trade with Murph & Mac on Thursday morning.
“I think a lot of this, also, some of this had to do with the fact that Bill Belichick has as much respect as he does for John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan,” Schefter said. “When he looked at it, he could have traded Jimmy Garoppolo anywhere. Cleveland was dying for Jimmy Garoppolo.”
Given his serious interest throughout the NFL, the Patriots faced that facts that they could not afford to keep Tom Brady and re-sign Garoppolo when he becomes a free agent after this season. The Patriots did not want to trade Garoppolo to a conference rival and watch him potentially beat them down the stretch.
“He made the decision to trade him to those two particular individuals with the idea that he would not be in the Patriots’ conference, with the idea that they would not turn around and decide to go another direction and trade him to the Jets or Bills or Dolphins or a quarterback-needed AFC East division because of the relationships between the sides,” Schefter said.
After starting Brian Hoyer didn’t work out well, and C.J. Beathard yet to bring the 49ers their first win of the season, John Lynch managed to keep his team as top priority while maintaining a good relationship throughout the league.
“In this particular case, now the 49ers are the benefactors of that. Let’s not dismiss that you must do what’s best for your football team,period,” Schefter said. “That overrides everything, but beyond that once you get to the secondary factors, in any line of work and any deal that’s made, relationships are a factor. They just are. In this particular case, I believe that played a smaller part, once you get past that you have to do what’s best for your organization, that I think was a part of the ginormous trade Monday night.”
To listen to the full interview check out the podcast below, and skip to 1:21 for Schefter on the Garoppolo trade.