Roughly a month ago, it was reported that the Cleveland Browns weren’t interested in trading for San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. Well, it sounds like things have changed.
According to Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com, the Browns will consider trading for Garoppolo if Deshaun Watson’s six-game suspension gets significantly increased.
The NFL decided last week that it would appeal Watson’s suspension. League commissioner Roger Goodell revealed that he’s pushing for a full-season suspension.
A final ruling hasn’t been made yet in Watson’s case, and yet, NFL fans are ready to ramp up the Garoppolo to the Browns speculation.
49ers fans are pleased with this report. They’d much rather the team trade Garoppolo to the Browns than outright release him.
As for the Browns, showing interest in Garoppolo could be a sign the front office isn’t all in on Jacoby Brissett being their starting quarterback for a full season.
Garoppolo underwent shoulder surgery during the offseason. 49ers general manager John Lynch said the veteran signal-caller has recovered nicely.
“Jimmy’s doing a really good job,” Lynch said. “Kind of building his stamina in the throwing program that was prescribed all along and working out really strongly and aggressively, but yeah that situation is kind of where we’ve described it before. We’ll stay patient through this one as well and come to a great conclusion for everybody involved.”
In 2021, Garoppolo completed 68.3 percent of his passes for 3,810 yards with 20 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
Garoppolo would be an upgrade over Brissett, albeit his $24.2 million base salary might be too expensive to take on.