On 35 different occasions, the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers have met on the field to play a football game. The Niners have taken 20 of those games (and tied the Birds in another), but those 20 wins include the most recent, a 17-11 tilt in Week 2 which was for the better part of the afternoon a snoozer that, in all honesty, turned out to be a game that the Birds should have won.
Who knew, at the time, that Philly was getting a look at a team that would battle for the right to play in football’s biggest game almost four months later. As it turns out, the team the Eagles faced in Week 2 wasn’t the team they’d wind up being. What we did expect was for the Niners quarterback on that day, Jimmy Garoppolo, to eventually hand the reigns over to Trey Lance for good.
It’s taken longer than many thought. Jimmy G did, indeed, finish the 2021-2022 season as San Francisco’s starting quarterback, but those discussions about his exit are back.
The next leg of Jimmy Garoppolo’s journey could send him to an Eagles rival.
According to NFL.com’s Chase Goodbread, the plan in San Fran is to do what everyone has expected of them for a while. They’ll move Garoppolo in 2022 and go with the third-overall selection of the 2021 NFL Draft, Trey Lance as their starting quarterback.
NFL.com Analyst Bucky Brooks followed that report with a few theories of his own. He recently cooked up a story on possible landing spots, one of which is an Eagles rival, the Washington Commanders.
As you know, they finished with a mark of 7-10 during the 2021-2022 season and should look to explore some quarterback options. Here’s some of Brooks’ theory for why he believes Jimmy G makes sense to fill that void in our nation’s capital.
"It is time for Ron Rivera and company to fix their quarterback problem after watching a number of potential QB1s struggle over the past two seasons… Garoppolo is not a top-10 quarterback, but he is certainly an upgrade over whoever the team has trotted out as starters over the past two seasons. From his leadership skills to his poise and timely play-making ability, the veteran passer can add some stability to a position that has been in flux in the nation’s capital. Moreover, he can bring the championship magic that the team wanted when Alex Smith joined the squad in 2018."
Good stuff there. Just in case you’re wondering, the Pittsburgh Steelers, Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins, and New Orleans Saints are named as the other four landing spots. It doesn’t take much to determine why that’s the case.
Garoppolo’s journey is hard to explain. On one hand, if you possessed the ability to see the future, and you could tell any team they’d get a quarterback that would lead them to 31 wins in 45 games, they’d be interested. If you told them that same quarterback would lead them to two trips to an NFC Championship Game and a Super Bowl appearance in two seasons out of a three-year span, they’d be overjoyed and sign up for that deal immediately. Unfortunately, we know that isn’t the totality of Jimmy G’s resume.
He’s a gifted passer, but he’ll never be elite. He’s frustrated easily when forced to drop back and operate like a pocket-passer for the duration of an NFL game. He gets flustered and delivers some bad balls when he’s forced to make things happen. Whoever lands Garoppolo needs to understand that he’s still a project… even now.
Might Washington be interested? Could we throw the New York Giants name into the mix as another possible destination? Time will tell, but here’s what we do know. It’s going to be a lot of fun to throw these ideas back and forth for the next month or so.