One offseason trade 49ers absolutely should not make
Hypothetical trades are commonplace with the rumor mill churning ahead of the start of the NFL’s 2021 league year. Not all trade suggestions are created equal though, and one presented by ESPN’s Mike Reiss doesn’t make a lot of sense for San Francisco.
It’s important to note Reiss was purely giving a hypothetical and he wasn’t reporting that this was discussed or even on the table. He wonders though if the 49ers would be willing to move off Garoppolo for the right price. That is, perhaps they aren’t getting a clear upgrade at quarterback, but they’re not all the way sold on Garoppolo so it’d be worth it for them to acquire a premium asset.
That in itself isn’t an outrageous thought, but he asked this question:
How committed would they be if the Patriots, taking more of an aggressive approach, floated something like a second-round pick (No. 46) or even cornerback Stephon Gilmore to get ahead of what could be a challenging contract situation?
A second-round pick probably wouldn’t be enough for the 49ers to outright move on from Garoppolo, unless they knew they had a trade worked out for Deshaun Watson or to move up for one of the top QB prospects in this year’s draft.
The more head-scratching suggestion is the Gilmore for Garoppolo swap. San Francisco does need cornerback help, and Gilmore is only one year removed from winning a Defensive Player of the Year award, but he’s not the type of player the 49ers are going to add in exchange for their quarterback.
Gilmore turns 31 in September and has just one year left on his contract. The 49ers would only take on $7.3 million of his salary, but he wasn’t as good last year as he was in 2019, and he might even require an extension before stepping on the field.
The 49ers have plenty of needs, including cornerback, but they’re not so desperate for one that they’d add a 32-year-old in exchange for a quarterback they’re fine with moving forward.
In fact, they’d probably prefer the second-round pick given the choice between the two, and they may not do the deal even if the Patriots included both options – Gilmore and the No. 46 pick.
A Garoppolo trade to New England wouldn’t be completely outrageous given his history with the club, but the swap wouldn’t be for Stephon Gilmore straight across, and it likely wouldn’t come until the 49ers had a contingency plan in place that they believed gave them an upgrade over their previous signal caller.
