Raiders QB Jimmy Garoppolo breaks silence on 49ers' decision to trade Trey Lance
When former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo joined the Las Vegas Raiders in March, not many assumed the QB the team drafted to replace him would be gone nearly five months later.
Yet after the 49ers sent Trey Lance to the Dallas Cowboys over the weekend for a fourth-round pick in 2024, that’s exactly where things stand. While Lance’s arrival in San Francisco two years ago essentially forced Garoppolo out the door, the 31-year-old bears no ill will toward the former No. 3 overall pick.
"Things didn't work out in San Francisco for whatever reason, but glad that he gets another shot, man,” Garoppolo said, via NFL.com. “This league's all about opportunities, and when you get a fresh one like that, you've just got to take advantage of it.”
Garoppolo found himself in the exact situation Cowboys QB Dak Prescott finds himself in now as a high-priced veteran who’s essentially been put on notice. Garoppolo was nearing the end of the five-year, $137.5 million deal he signed in 2018, and Lance seemed to make him expendable.
Prescott is in the same boat. He has two years left on his four-year, $160M deal, and with Lance being just 23, the Cowboys may have little incentive to bring him back once that contract ends.
Garoppolo’s advice for Prescott? Use Lance’s presence as motivation. After all, it worked OK for him. (He landed a three-year, $72.75M deal with the Raiders this offseason.)
"There's always a younger guy trying to come in, and obviously the coaches want younger, cheaper players to do something that they think is better than you," Garoppolo stated. "But that's what makes this league so great, man. It pushes you. Having to train whoever it was the Niners drafted, that was going to push me and make me a better player, and I came out better on the other end from it. So, I think it's all about perspective.”
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