Jimmy Garoppolo Got All the Money After Five Starts

Jimmy Garoppolo has gotten paid today, and the San Francisco 49ers did what Washington never did with Kirk Cousins and locked up their guy before they went down the road of having to franchise-tag Garoppolo. According to Mike Garafolo, it’s a five-year deal with a total of $137.5 million. We don’t know the guaranteed money or structure of the deal (and that matters), but that would be $27.5 million per year.

And while that may seem crazy, you have to remember that in addition to some on the back end of that being funny money (the cap charge for 2018 will probably be closer to $20 million), the salaries are escalating. San Francisco got in before some bigger names get paid this offseason and get their “biggest evah contract” headlines. The franchise tag number was going to be above $23 million (providing a leverage point) and climbing if used a second time. So Garoppolo’s point of bargaining began with knowing San Francisco would have to spend at least $50 million to keep him for just two years.

And it may seem crazy to give this to a guy after five starts. But Jimmy Garoppolo showed that he is the quarterback of the future. They traded for him. He came in and produced and the team was so much better. Now, they can just focus on building the rest of the team with all the cap space they still have.