By Jordan Long
The San Francisco 49ers open up training camp on July 26th. Their first regular season game is on September 11th against the Chicago Bears. The 49ers are reportedly still going to trade quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. One landing spot that could make sense is Seattle.
Garoppolo has been the 49ers’ quarterback since the 2017 season. His record as their starting quarterback is 31-14, passing for 11,162 yards and 66 touchdowns. Garoppolo was seeing the field well, not forcing the ball into coverage for easy interceptions. He did take a few chances with 38 interceptions. This is an excellent touchdown to interception rate.
Garoppolo even helped the 49ers earn playoff appearances twice, in 2019 and this past year. In 2019, they advanced to Super Bowl 54 but fell to the New England Patriots 31-20. Last year, San Francisco was knocked out in the NFC Championship game by the L.A. Rams 20-16.
When the offseason hit, there were plenty of rumors Garoppolo was going to be traded elsewhere. The San Francisco 49ers think they have their quarterback of the future in Trey Lance. Lance was drafted 3rd overall in last year’s NFL Draft. Lance started in 2 games last year going 1-1. He passed for 603 yards and 5 touchdowns. For a rookie, Lance was learning to read NFL defenses and he was doing a great job, tossing just 2 interceptions. The 49ers want him to be the full-time starter, so the 49ers are working to trade Garoppolo.
According to MSN.com ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, there is one team who should consider trading for him, the Seattle Seahawks. Fowler said, “And you have Seattle that’s still out there. They were sort of implicated in the Baker Mayfield situation – didn’t make that move. I’m told that internally, they have discussed the possibility of Garoppolo playing for them. They’ve done their film work to see how he would fit. It’s tricky, certainly, to do a trade inside of the NFC West, but the 49ers and Seattle know they can maybe sort of wait this out.”
This makes sense for the Seahawks. They have two quarterbacks who have played in this league, Geno Smith and Drew Lock. Smith’s record as a starting quarterback is 13-21, passing for 6,917 yards and 34 touchdowns. The problem with Smith is he can’t read defenses well and he is picked off, throwing 37 in his career.
Lock was part of the Seattle trade that sent Russell Wilson to Denver. Lock played 3 seasons for Denver. The Broncos anticipated he was going to be the franchise quarterback for years to come which never happened. Lock’s record as the starting quarterback for Denver was 8-13. He passed for 4,740 yards and 25 touchdowns. The problem with Lock is he made some horrible decisions with the football, throwing into coverage giving the defender an easy interception. Lock also couldn’t hold onto the football allowing the defense to knock it out of his hands for fumbles. Lock totaled 20 interceptions and 7 fumbles. Of those 7 fumbles, his team lost 2 of them.
It was expected Smith and Lock would battle it out during training camp. Now that Garoppolo could be on the move, it could derail those plans. Garoppolo is a much better quarterback than Lock or Smith. If Garoppolo is dealt, it gives Seattle the best chance to win football games. Of course, one of these two quarterbacks might be in a deal for Garoppolo because the 49ers may want one back.
For Seattle, it makes sense to look to acquire Garoppolo. The only problem with all of this is Seattle is in the 49ers’ division, the NFC West. Trades in the division rarely happen because teams don’t want a divisional rival to be better since they see them twice a year. The 49ers will listen to offers for Garoppolo. Seattle should be in on them. How could it hurt? Garoppolo is the upgrade they need at quarterback since they lost Russell Wilson.
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