Jimmy Garoppolo admits he didn’t expect to return to 49ers as backup: ‘It wasn’t on my mind’

By | September 1, 2022
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The Jimmy Garoppolo trade rumors have seemingly ended not with a bang, but with a whimper ahead of the 2022 NFL season.

The 49ers ultimately could not offload their veteran quarterback via the trade bloc. Nor did they simply release him so he could come to terms with another team on his own (at the risk he would choose, say, division rival Seattle).

And so, the team brought him back and renegotiated his contract to make him the highest-paid backup in the league behind Trey Lance. The saga’s ending came as a bit of a surprise to Garoppolo, who on Thursday admitted he thought would never return to San Francisco.

“Really it wasn’t on my mind, to be completely honest,” Garoppolo told reporters. “I mean I was training out here. I had to be here, so I was here for that reason. I don’t know. I was just trying to get my body right, like I was saying, getting my shoulder right.

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I felt very confident out there, and I knew that I was ready to roll. I just needed to figure out where it was. And things kind of fell into place these last couple of days really, just right before it all happened.

Garoppolo said he also considered asking the 49ers outright to release him so he could move onto another team, but he conceded that it  “wasn’t the way I wanted it to go.”

There was a thought of that at one point. Trust me, there was. That came and went. I don’t know; things just kind of kept falling into place.”

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Garoppolo did allow that the process was “different” and “different than any other situation I’ve been in,” however.

The eighth-year quarterback was tied to several teams this offseason, including the Panthers but most notably the Browns — in the wake of the Deshaun Watson suspension — and the Seahawks, whose quarterback battle between Drew Lock and Geno Smith hasn’t exactly inspired confidence.

Now, Garoppolo will remain with the team that considered every option in regard to moving on from him.

“Things worked out,” Garoppolo said. “I’m happy now.”

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