The 49ers and quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo have agreed to a five-year, $137.5MM contract, a source tells Mike Garafolo of NFL.com (on Twitter). Full financial details of the deal have yet to leak out, but this stands as the largest deal in league history on an average annual value basis. Matthew Stafford set the bar with his five-year, $135MM ($27MM/season) deal last August. Garoppolo now has the new watermark with an average of $27.5MM per year.
Garoppolo signed the deal Thursday night, the team confirmed.
The Niners acquired Garoppolo during the season from the Patriots in exchange for a second-round choice. Based on the early results, the deal may go down as one of the greatest all-time heists in NFL history. Once the young QB was inserted into the Niners’ starting lineup, SF rallied from an ugly 1-10 start to finish out the year on a five-game winning streak. The sample size is small, but Jimmy G owns a career 7-0 record as a starting QB.
At the Senior Bowl, 49ers GM John Lynch sounded optimistic about a deal coming together soon:
“When you find the right guy at that position, it’s really good for your franchise. We believe we’ve found the right guy. Now the challenge is getting Jimmy signed. We’re working hard towards that. We’ll see. I think he wants to be with us and we want him there. I think it makes too much sense not to happen. So it’s just a matter of getting it done.”
Technically speaking, Garoppolo was due for unrestricted free agency in March. However, there was zero chance of Garoppolo reaching the open market as the Niners were fully prepared to use the franchise tag on the 26-year-old (27 in November).
The Patriots, in theory, could have kept Garoppolo and groomed him to be the successor to Tom Brady, who turns 41 in August. Depending on who you ask, his status in New England may or may not have caused a triangular rift between Brady, coach Bill Belichick, and owner Robert Kraft. It’s not hard to imagine the Patriots kicking themselves behind closed doors for the trade, particularly after the way Garoppolo performed in the second half of the 2017 season.
Then again, the Patriots did offer up four-year contract extensions for Garoppolo in the $17MM-$18MM per year range plus increases for if/when he succeeded Brady. Garoppolo, who was no doubt advised that he could crack $25MM per season on his next deal, declined the deal, opting to wait for an opportunity to run a team of his own.
Garoppolo’s position as the league’s highest-paid player might not last all that long. If Kirk Cousins reaches unrestricted free agency, he could very well top Garoppolo’s AAV, despite being three years older. Cousins himself might not stay atop the mountain for long with Matt Ryan entering his walk year and Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, and Ben Roethlisberger being two years away from the open market.
He’s worth it
Nobody’s worth that much money.
Yep, they are. You are worth what the market will bear. If someone is willing to pay you that much, you are objectively worth that much. Whether you are worth that much from a subjective position is mutually exclusive from that.
Yep, keep using that logic, and continue paying higher and higher prices for tickets.
Idiotic.
Someone that would buy Bitcoin at 20k
Ha ha now remember it’s going to $300,000.
Well deserved. Also today is crazy with sports. Why can’t baseball be like this. Also undefeated in 7 starts even though one team was in turmoil when he got there. Very good qb. Real question is will he go undefeated in 2018 regular season
Because baseball is more guaranteed money and there’s no salary cap
Because the front offices of MLB are getting smarter by using modern day analytics to figure out that they were over-paying players for a while now
and the salaries are coming back to the norm before the league implodes on itself like the NFL
YAAAAAAAY
Thank you baby Jesus! So glad they got this deal done! Let’s bring on the people saying it’s too much money! After dealing with with crappy QB play from multiple QB’s it feels good to have a great one locked down for years to come.
Don’t retire his number just yet…
After 7 starts? I mean the guy looks good but damn. Franchise tag him and make him prove it over a full season. Packers better pay Rodgers now. If they wait until Cousins gets paid it’s going to cost them even more.
Tag wouldn’t be much better. This is $27.5 million per year. 1st year tag would be around $23.5, 2nd year would be $28. No chance he signs for less than those guarantees anyway.
I’ll be interested to see how much in overall guarantees. At least $52 million (two years of tags), but how much more will determine whether this was a good deal or not.
Tag would be a one year risk. I’m fairly confident he’ll have a good year, but in case he’s just a flash in the pan they could walk away. We’ll have to see what the guaranteed money looks like.
Either way he’s going to get paid, and I doubt he’s going to sign before Cousins. If Rodgers were to sign first, there’s still the off chance that Cousins would get the bigger deal. On the other hand, if Rodgers waits for Cousins, he can take that framework to Green Bay and say he needs to be paid more than Cousins.
Tagging wouldn’t be well received and it put a cloud of doubt over the whole team. With $74 million guaranteed and $90 million over first three years, when 49ers have a bunch of space, means the 2nd half of the deal will very, very cheap. Worst case scenario they can cut and move on in three years with very little dead cap spwce
Exactly. Rebuilding teams with cap space should be following that model when giving out big contracts. Put all of the guarantees in the first two or three years so its easier to move on near the end. The Jags have done this the past 3 or 4 years and its worked out decently well for them.
See the info on Cousins, that’s why you don’t tag a QB
Jimmy GarrapaGOAT
The 49’ers clearly made the right move, but it’s a wonky system where a guy with 7 starts is the highest paid in the league.
Brady wants to play til he’s 45. The next contract Jimmy signs is with New England
Here comes the money…
7 starts. Highest paid player. This is about as screwy as when they used to give first round picks 60 million+ out of the gate. He makes more than the GOAT for gods sake. Lame. So Case Keenum just went 13-3, does he get 25 million dollars now too?
Wouldn’t doubt it. Foles will cash in too now. That guy in TB and Chi got a lot of money and I honestly cannot remember his name without google. Mccown ir McGowan or something like that
Mike Glennon
GOAT? Who dat? GOATs win all their Super Bowls.
Go back to your moms basement
It’s a team sport
No such thing as a GOAT at QB or pretty much any other position in football. The game as evolved and changed too much over time. You can only be the greatest player at your position in your era.
*has
Belichick to SF?
Colin????? Hello???? Ohhhhh he’s still kneeing
*Kneeling
Look at Janeane Garofalo pulling in the cha-ching!
Be interesting to see how much of that is guaranteed. What if only 25 of that is? Then basically after two years the Niners could cut him if he performs below expectations.
Finally a good QB in San Fran! Make sure you have line to protect investment now.