Jimmy Garoppolo took a massive pay cut to stick with the 49ers as their backup quarterback behind Trey Lance.
When discussions to continue the relationship between Garoppolo's camp and San Francisco's front office into the 2022 NFL season began, there reportedly was one number in mind.
"The key parameter in negotiations was, I’m told, that Garoppolo’s base pay be less than Lance’s," Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer reported in his Wednesday "mailbag" column.
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SIGN UP HERE Lance will make an average of $8.53 million per season over the first four years of his rookie contract. Breer reports that was the ceiling for any Garoppolo restructured deal.
Originally set to make nearly $27 million this season, Garoppolo will earn a base salary of $6.5 million and can earn up to nearly $16 million in play-time incentives.
On Tuesday, general manager John Lynch revealed the timeline of when those discussions first began.
“Yeah, Kyle and I always talk about the direction of our team and this situation with Jimmy has been going on for some time," Lynch said on a conference call. "I think we've been consistent with a player of his caliber, you don't just allow him to walk and then other things complicated as we've talked about a lot with his shoulder surgery. And so that never materialized, obviously there were going to be some deadlines, but Kyle and I just started floating the idea probably a month ago. What if we kept them here in a backup capacity and at some point, we shared that with Jimmy."
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Although Garoppolo will earn less than Lance -- without incentives, that is -- this season, he still will be the highest-paid backup quarterback in the NFL.