Garoppolo raises salary bar
49ers open vault to sign QB for $137.5m, paving way for others to strike it rich
WASHINGTON
— The salary bar keeps inching higher for NFL quarterbacks. It happened in June with Derek Carr. It happened in August with Matthew Stafford. And it happened again on Thursday with Jimmy Garoppolo.
It remains very good news for those who are next in line, a group that includes Kirk Cousins, Drew Brees, Matt Ryan and, especially, Aaron Rodgers.
The San Francisco 49ers and Garoppolo agreed Thursday to a fiveyear contract worth about $137.5 million, a person familiar with the situation confirmed.
That’s up from the five-year, $135-million deal struck by Stafford with the Detroit Lions, previously the richest contract ever handed out to an NFL player in terms of total money. Stafford’s deal pushed the bar past Carr’s five-year, $125-million pact with the Oakland Raiders.
It made sense for Garoppolo to be the next QB to move the needle, even with just seven career NFL starts under his belt. He was eligible to hit the market at the right time, fresh off demonstrating he could be the league’s next big thing.
The 49ers sent a second-round draft pick to the New England Patriots to get Garoppolo in a trade deadline deal, then kept him under wraps and on the bench temporarily while he learned the nuances of coach Kyle Shanahan’s offence. But when Garoppolo finally played for the Niners, he looked every bit like a franchise quarterback. The 49ers, with a record of 1-10 to that point, won their final five games of the season with Garoppolo at quarterback.
There was no way the Niners could afford to lose Garoppolo, making it inevitable he would be re-signed to a long-term deal before hitting free agency or being franchise-tagged. The 49ers made the more permanent arrangement happen, and now Garoppolo is under contract for the same duration as Shanahan and general manager John Lynch, who are one season into six-year contracts. They’re the cornerstones of the Niners’ quest to regain relevance, and their contracts reflect that.
The market seems set for Cousins — who has started 50 more games than Garoppolo — as he prepares to hit free agency in March.
Brees also is eligible for unrestricted free agency in March. But he seems likely to work out a deal to remain in New Orleans.
From there, it could be on to Ryan and Rodgers, both former MVPs.