We should find about about the Julio sweepstakes this week. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler believes the 49ers are still in the mix.
“And my other commitment was, ‘But here’s the good news, Jimmy: We don’t want you to go anywhere. We want you to be here, and our ownership has made the commitment that we can do that. We can fit it in our cap, and we think it’s a good situation for you; probably not the one you ultimately want to hear. I’m sure you want to be the long-term guy. There’s a flip side to that. You still could be.’ Because he’s going to have a chance to compete and earn that job, and we’re just going to let that play out. But Jimmy’s a really good football player.”
Garoppolo has a solid résumé, but some believe that he’s not the total package as a passer/playmaker — and that San Francisco needed to upgrade the position to maximize its potential as a title contender.
“He is a good player, but he misses a handful of throws each game that should be considered layups,” a former NFL player and offensive assistant told me. “Shanahan is one of the best in the business at designing ‘can’t-miss’ explosive plays, but there are times when Jimmy doesn’t see it or flat out misses. That has to cause some frustration in the offensive meeting room.”
“He’s a great player,” Mike Tannenbaum, ESPN’s NFL front office insider, said. “He’ll be up there. To me, he should be at the top of that market. He should be at the very high end of the market.”
What could that look like? According to Tannenbaum, the floor for such a deal would come in around $15 million annually but “upwards from there, for sure.” The comps for Warner aren’t hard to find.
Seattle Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner, himself a big fan of Warner’s work, holds the title as the highest-paid at the position’s history in terms of annual value. Wagner signed a three-year, $54 million extension with the Seahawks in 2019.
No. 4: 49ers Running Back Raheem Mostert
The 49ers recently losing running back Jeff Wilson Jr. to a knee injury for four to six months is a setback, although it opens up the door for running back Trey Sermon to see an increased workload.
Whether or not Sermon starts a lot this season is irrelevant. “Starters” at running back aren’t necessarily the ones who wind up seeing the bulk of carries, and it’s possible Shanahan uses Sermon in a similar way as he did running back Tevin Coleman a year ago: a first-half option to test out defenses.
When those defenses are worn down, particularly in the second half, that’s when Shanahan traditionally fielded the team’s No. 1 running back, Raheem Mostert, in a significant role.
Granted, injuries limited Mostert to just eight games played last season. But in 2019, when the Niners boasted an elite-level offense, Mostert 952 all-purpose yards, which ranked third best on the team, and his 10 touchdowns that year led all of San Francisco’s offensive players.
The 49ers are the team coming up most regarding Jones around the league, according to ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler, who indicated during a SportsCenter appearance San Francisco is in the mix for the seven-time Pro Bowler — to some degree. While the 49ers would not be able to match the reported offer of a first-round pick, they do have a strong roster equipped to contend in the NFC this season. A healthy Jones would certainly help the team do so.
The Rams, despite their crowded receiver room, also popped up in Fowler’s report. Los Angeles and Baltimore have done plenty to add at receiver this year; each franchise used its first draft pick to address the position and each signed a veteran (DeSean Jackson and Sammy Watkins, respectively). The Rams are often in the mix for high-profile trade targets, but they would not seem a fit. They have Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp signed to lucrative long-term dea
