Jimmy Garoppolo remains Patriots primary QB target for 2021 as 49ers consider upgrade

San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch “really believes” Jimmy Garoppolo will be back as the team’s starting quarterback in 2021, but the rest of the NFL isn’t so sure. That includes Garoppolo’s former team, the New England Patriots, who still have the 29-year-old signal caller as their primary target for the coming season. That’s according to Greg Bedard of the Boston Sports Journal, who reported this week that Garoppolo is “by far their ‘Plan A'” as a quarterback for this season.

“The optimal situation for the Patriots this coming season,” said Bedard on his Patriots podcast, “Jimmy G will be back here.”

It would require the 49ers to initiate or at least listen to commercial offers for Garoppolo, who is under contract until 2022. But that doesn’t seem out of reach, despite Lynch’s latest insistence that Garoppolo could return under center. . Lynch, after all, is still only a year away from admitting a potential Tom Brady pursuit as Garoppolo’s replacement, and coach Kyle Shanahan has been even more outspoken about the possibility of moving to QB before 2021. .

The Patriots’ stated interest in Garoppolo is not surprising. Four years after trading the former second-round pick to San Francisco, New England sorely needed a successor to Tom Brady, who gave way to an average and injured Cam Newton in 2020. The Patriots would not be. not in love with this year. Free agent QB harvest, which would include Newton, and they would have already called about any veteran flaggers perceived to be commercially available.

Garoppolo spent the first four seasons of his career in New England as Brady’s replacement. A two-time Super Bowl champion with the Pats, he posted solid numbers as a starter for the Niners but has also struggled to stay on the pitch, missing 23 games since 2018.