Chris Simms says 49ers aren’t disrespecting Garoppolo by looking at QB options

It’s been a hectic few weeks in the NFL’s quarterback market. Deshaun Watson wants out of Houston, Carson Wentz probably won’t be with the Philadelphia Eagles next season, and we saw Matthew Stafford traded for Jared Goff.

The San Francisco 49ers have been linked to most of the available QBs, but we haven’t heard that the team has made any concrete offers. The Niners have a starting quarterback under contract, and it looks like Jimmy Garoppolo will be under center for Week 1 of the 2021 season.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan’s good friend, Chris Simms, hopped on Laura Britt’s podcast and was asked about the Garoppolo situation (h/t Alex Didion of NBC Bay Area).

“I think Lynch, Shanahan, Laura, you know, they’re aggressive, they always have been, I think the approach for the 49ers and what they always do is they’re always looking for competition or ways to get better, but I don’t think that in any way shape or form is a disrespect to Jimmy Garoppolo, and I know a lot of people look at it that way.

“I think there’s great respect in that organization for Jimmy G. Hey, how can you not look at it and go, ‘well when he’s on the field we’re good and we win and go to Super Bowls, when he’s not we can’t win football games and we really struggle. So they do value him, I think that’s being lost in translation.”

Give Shanahan and general manager John Lynch credit for always looking for ways to upgrade the team. Garoppolo has won 72.7 percent of the games he has started since he joined the team in 2017.

The issue with Garoppolo is his health. He has missed 23 starts over the previous three seasons, and the 49ers have struggled without him. We saw how bad the offense looked with Nick Mullens and C.J. Beathard running the show last season.

Lynch and Shanahan speak highly of Jimmy G and seem perfectly fine with running it back with him as the starter next season. Simms says the Niners are doing the right thing by looking to upgrade the most critical position in football.

“You’re gonna be looking for other options out there, and especially when the Matthew Staffords or Aaron Rodgers of the world get thrown onto your radar, listen, I like Jimmy Garoppolo, but those are clearly upgrades. They are superstar-type talents, Rodgers, other than Mahomes, is the best quarterback in football. Matthew Stafford is a top-10 talent. So they’re going to be aggressive is what I’m telling you.

But I don’t think they’re just going to bring in anybody to replace Jimmy G. It would have to be something that really moves the needle and makes sense for their team and their roster, and they think is clearly a better option than Jimmy G.”

Garoppolo isn’t a top-10 QB in the league, but he certainly isn’t at the bottom of the pecking order either. He has his limitations but has shown he can lead a team to the Super Bowl during the 2019 season that saw the team win 15 out of 19 games, including the playoffs.

We haven’t seen an offseason with so many quarterbacks on the market. Watson, Wentz and Sam Darnold could have new homes in the coming weeks. There are also four quarterbacks expected to go in the top 15 of the 2021 NFL Draft.

The 49ers are going to bring back Josh Rosen, and unless they pull off a massive trade or take a rookie at No. 12, it looks like it’ll be Garoppolo, Rosen and Josh Johnson in the QB room to start the 2021 campaign.