Getty Image / Ethan Miller
Two years ago the San Francisco 49ers drafted Trey Lance to replace Jimmy Garoppolo.
Garoppolo is now with the Las Vegas Raiders, which has freed him up to reveal how he felt about the move at the time.
Back in 2017, the San Francisco 49ers traded a 2nd round pick for Jimmy Garoppolo with the hope that he would become their franchise quarterback.
The move worked out pretty well for them. In 2019 Garoppolo helped lead the 49ers to the Super Bowl.
Despite getting the team within a win of a ring, the 49ers were looking for his replacement 2 years later.
They ended up making a big trade and moving up to pick 3 to draft Trey Lance.
It made for an uncomfortable situation in San Francisco.
Then Garoppolo took the team back to the NFC Championship Game the following season.
Garoppolo also unexpectedly ended up starting for much of the following season after Lance was injured.
Now he has headed to Las Vegas to start for the Raiders, but his path already crossed with his old team.
The Raiders and 49ers are currently taking part in joint practices together.
That gave the San Francisco Chronicle’s Mike Silver a chance to talk to Garoppolo about how he felt when the 49ers drafted Lance.
In advance of Raiders-49ers joint workouts in Vegas, I sat down with Jimmy Garoppolo and talked about his long, tumultuous goodbye… @sfchronicle @SportingGreenSF https://t.co/kh8gYCFcYJ
— Michael Silver (@MikeSilver) August 10, 2023
“Yeah, the (2021 season) was real awkward,” Garoppolo told Silver. “That was tougher than this past year, honestly. You’re always gonna be dealt a hard hand at some point, and you’ve just got to make the best of it, and that’s what I’ve tried to do. That was a hard time. But I had some good people around me to lean on.”
It’s not all that surprising that the 49ers trading up for a quarterback while they had one on their roster who had just taken them to a Super Bowl and wasn’t even 30 yet made things awkward.
Things may have actually become a bit more awkward now even with Jimmy Garoppolo gone as Trey Lance could be the team’s 3rd-string QB this season.
At least Jimmy G shouldn’t have to worry about the Raiders bringing in a replacement for the next couple of years.