Jimmy Garoppolo Sheds Light On Agreeing To Huge Pay Cut With 49ers

KEY POINTS

Jimmy Garoppolo explains the reason behind his decision to stay in San Francisco
Garoppolo prefers to go with the flow and focus on playing pro football
He could be rewarded with a bigger deal after the 2022-23 NFL season

Jimmy Garoppolo had the chance to stand by his contract, one that would have paid him $25.62 million in salary.

But instead, the two-time Super Bowl champion agreed to a dramatic pay cut to play on.

The move may come as a surprise, and the best person to shed light on it was no less than Garoppolo.

He admitted that returning to the San Francisco 49ers was not completely on his mind.

But as he was training, he somehow figured things out and everything followed.

"[Returning] really wasn't on my mind to be completely honest," Garoppolo said as quoted by ESPN. "I was training out here. I had to be here, so I was here for that reason. I was just trying to get my body right... I felt very confident out there and I knew that I was ready to roll. I just need to figure out where it was. And things kind of fell into place these last couple days."

There were a lot of things to consider here for Garoppolo.

One is that while there were NFL teams who were linked to him, nothing went beyond speculation.

Most are likely waiting to see if the 30-year-old is well-recovered from his offseason shoulder surgery, wanting assurance that Garoppolo could still compete at a high level.

Looking at it differently, passing up close to $16 million in salary could be a sacrifice that would end up profitable for the Illinois native–assuming he can prove that he has fully recovered from the offseason shoulder surgery.

Proving that he remains efficient may be tough for Garoppolo this coming NFL season, especially if he plays backup to Trey Lance.

His dilemma may have been addressed now, but if everything falls into place, he could be in for a lucrative paycheck after this NFL season.

"There was a thought of that at one point, trust me there was, but that came and went and I don't know things just kind of kept falling into place. And I'm one of those people that I don't really want to ruffle the feathers too much here and there and I kind of want to just go with the flow," Garoppolo stated as quoted by Pro Football Talk.