Are the San Francisco 49ers going to attempt to bring New England to the West Coast by hiring Josh McDaniels and trading for Jimmy Garoppolo?
The San Francisco 49ers are going to see major changes this offseason, and Jimmy Garoppolo could be part of the solution at quarterback.
There are obviously plenty of factors here, but Garoppolo would certainly come as a package deal with head coach prospect Josh McDaniels, who did something similar when he was hired by the Denver Broncos back in 2009. At that time, McDaniels wanted to trade for Patriots backup quarterback Matt Cassel, and alienated Jay Cutler in the process.
The Broncos traded Cutler for draft picks and Kyle Orton, and McDaniels drafted Tim Tebow in the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft.
He was fired before Tebow ever started a game with Denver.
This time around, McDaniels is looking at some pretty interesting head coaching situations, but none is more of a blank canvas to me than the San Francisco 49ers. Perhaps McDaniels learned from his past experience, but the 49ers currently don’t have a GM and he has already interviewed for their head coaching position.
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It seems likely he would have some serious pull in terms of bringing in personnel with the 49ers, and that could include swinging a trade for Jimmy Garoppolo. There’s no question the quarterback position needs fixing in San Francisco, and unlike many other Patriots backups through the years, I really like Garoppolo as an individual player. I don’t think he’s necessarily a ‘system’ guy but in this hypothetical scenario, he would be going with the system to the West Coast.
The 49ers certainly aren’t going to offer the Patriots a first round draft pick for Garoppolo, but they could very well offer a high second round pick and perhaps a conditional pick in a future year.
Whatever the case may be, the idea of bringing both McDaniels and Garoppolo to San Francisco makes sense. Tom Brady’s not slowing down. This offseason is going to be the perfect opportunity for the Patriots to sell high on him, and it would be even more fitting if their offensive coordinator becomes the head coach of the same team he’s getting traded to.
This might be the situation that makes the most sense for Garoppolo to get a full time starting job next season, though I’m sure a number of teams would be interested in having him (despite the high price tag) after what we saw from him this season.
Still, staying with McDaniels would be a great opportunity for Garoppolo. If the 49ers do indeed hire McDaniels, this is a situation that makes a ton of sense.
