General manager John Lynch admitted the 49ers briefly considered signing Tom Brady last year before ultimately deciding against it, and his team reportedly inquired about Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford but never made a formal offer before he was sent to the Los Angeles Rams two weeks ago.
As we noted last month, if a clear upgrade over Garoppolo is available in the form of Watson, expect the 49ers to be aggressive. What makes the recent Darnold and Wentz chatter peculiar is the fact that neither of the two appear to be demonstrably better options than Garoppolo at the moment. In both instances, something else is going on.
Here’s a brief evaluation of the chatter surrounding the 49ers and the three aforementioned quarterbacks.
Deshaun Watson
While over half of the league reportedly called the Houston Texans about Watson, there are really only two teams in the NFL who have the ammunition to win a bidding war for the disgruntled star.
The New York Jets possess the second overall pick that can be used on the draft’s second-best quarterback behind Trevor Lawrence, in addition to two additional first-round picks from the Seattle Seahawks from the Jamal Adams trade. The Miami Dolphins have the third overall pick (courtesy of the Texans, ironically), their own first-round pick at No. 18 overall and a young quarterback in Tua Tagovailoa.
The 49ers have … the 12th overall pick and no additional first-round picks or promising young quarterbacks (sorry, Josh Rosen). On the other hand, the Texans might prefer to send Watson to an NFC team, and the Houston Chronicle’s John McClain reported that the team is seeking a package of two first-round picks, two second-round picks and “two young defensive starters.”
The Texans would likely ask the 49ers for Fred Warner and Nick Bosa in that scenario, but is that a price Shanahan and Lynch want to pay? Could they negotiate it downwards to say, Dre Greenlaw and Javon Kinlaw? Are the Texans even going to trade Watson? Or will they instead dare him to sit out games the way Carson Palmer did in 2011 as a member of the Cincinnati Bengals?
FILE: Do the 49ers have the draft picks and the players to entice the Houston Texans to trade Deshaun Watson to San Francisco?
Carmen Mandato / Getty ImagesSam Darnold
McClain later predicted that if Watson is traded, the Jets would be the likeliest landing spot, thus displacing Sam Darnold.
Right before Super Bowl LV, CBS’s resident NFL insider, Jason La Canfora, said the following on-air: “Sources tell me 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan [is] very high on Sam Darnold, if that’s a match, follow me here, the 49ers would be trading Jimmy Garoppolo.”
Darnold appeared in more games than Garoppolo did in 2020, but played very poorly. The third-year USC project completed 59.6% of his passes for nine touchdowns and 11 interceptions, and finished dead last among qualified passers in ESPN’s total QBR metric.
However, he is only 23 years old and played alongside one of the worst supporting casts in the NFL, with many around the league seeing him as a potential reclamation project. Does that group include Kyle Shanahan?
“I’ve watched him a lot, whether it was college or last week’s game,” Shanahan said of Darnold ahead of the 49ers’ Week 2 matchup vs. the Jets last season. “I’m a big fan of Sam’s. He’s a very good player. He’s going to have a very good career in this league. He makes a lot of plays. If you’re not on your stuff, if you let him get comfortable back there, he’ll pick you apart as good as any quarterback. He can throw it very well and he sees the field extremely well. We have to make sure not to let him get comfortable, because when he does, he’ll show everyone why he’s that good.”
Of course, that quote came before the wheels completely fell off in New York, and it’s impossible to know whether Shanahan still feels the same way. However, even Shanahan’s view of Darnold has slipped, he has another component of the QB puzzle to consider: salary camp ramifications.
According to Spotrac, Garoppolo will carry a $26.4 million cap hit for the 49ers in 2021 — a year the salary cap will drop due to pandemic-induced revenue dips. It’s also a year several key starters, including Trent Williams, Kyle Juszczyk and Richard Sherman, are coming out of contract. Oh, and Fred Warner needs an extension.
Darnold, meanwhile, would only have a cap hit of $9.8 million. It would not be shocking if the 49ers convinced themselves that they could get Garoppolo-type production out of Darnold while using the savings on the rest of the roster.
Carson Wentz
FILE: Philadelphia Eagles QB Carson Wentz played as badly as the Jets’ Sam Darold last season, and has a salary cap number bigger than Jimmy Garoppolo.
Tony Avelar/Associated PressThis is the one that, on its face at least, is a complete head-scratcher.
Wentz was just as bad as Darnold was in 2020 (if not worse), and his contract ($34.6 million) is even larger than Garoppolo’s. So why, oh why, did the 49ers reportedly call the Philadelphia Eagles about trading for Wentz, as Denver radio host and NFL Draft insider Benjamin Allbright purports?
There has been an unusual amount of smoke regarding Wentz trade offers, and the leading theory is that most of the leaks are coming from the Eagles organization in an attempt to get interested teams to increase their offers. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the two teams with the most interest in Wentz are the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts.
“It’s my feeling that the Philadelphia Eagles have been working overtime to drum up more interest in Wentz than is actually out there,” remarked the Chicago Tribune’s Brad Biggs.
“Two years ago, the Eagles floated the notion that they would tag and trade Nick Foles,” recalled ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio. “When they realized that no one would trade for a franchise-tagged Nick Foles, the Eagles didn’t tag him. In this case, common sense suggests that the Eagles eventually will take what they can get for Wentz.”
49ers fans who want no part of Wentz are clear to exhale.
