While 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo continues to recover from shoulder surgery, San Francisco is doing all they can to ensure they don’t give away their former starter for too much of a bargain. While the team permitted Garoppolo to seek a trade, they’re willing to wait until roster cut-down day to move him, in order to get a maximum value, reports Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. 
According to Rapoport, there just isn’t a perfect trade partner out there right now for Garoppolo to go to. When looking out at the quarterback rooms across the NFL, there isn’t really any team struggling enough to field a starting quarterback that they’d be willing to take on Garoppolo’s salary.
There are teams like the Falcons, who don’t have an ideal starting quarterback. Atlanta will employ Marcus Mariota as QB1 despite the fact that he hasn’t started a game since losing the Titans’ job to Ryan Tannehill in 2019. Some might think that it’d be worth it to bring in Garoppolo who, in the two full seasons he’s started, amassed a win-loss record of 22-9 and took San Francisco to the NFC championship game both years. But Atlanta likely isn’t willing to shell out $24MM for the last year of Garoppolo’s contract. Especially when Mariota has shown the ability to win games over his career and, even if Mariota is unsuccessful, he may just prove to be a stopgap to give rookie third-round pick Desmond Ridder time to adjust to the NFL.
The Steelers are in a similar boat to the Falcons. Pittsburgh will utilize Mitchell Trubisky as a starter as Kenny Pickett grows into an NFL starter. The Panthers were in a similar boat, starting Sam Darnold with Matt Corral waiting in the wings, before they made the move for Baker Mayfield, who is still on his much more team-friendly rookie contract.
The Seahawks are a team who would instantly improve with the addition of Garoppolo. He would provide an upgrade to either Geno Smith or Drew Lock, but Seattle has made it abundantly clear that they are fine moving forward with the Smith-Lock quarterback battle. What’s more likely is that they would prefer their current situation over having to take on Garoppolo’s contract.
There are a couple other teams out there who have a starting quarterback in place, but they are either a short-term veteran without much of a backup plan or a young starter who may not have the franchise totally convinced yet.
For the former scenario, we look at the Colts and Rams. Indianapolis brought…