The 49ers made a pretty surprising move yesterday, even if it wasn’t a splash.
According to Adam Schefter, San Francisco re-signed Nate Sudfeld, their third-string quarterback last season, to a $2-3 million, fully-guaranteed deal.
That’s not the type of money you typically give to a third-stringer, a position that is usually inactive on game day. What it means is two-fold according to 49ers beat writer Matt Maiocco. The 49ers are not going to shop on the open market for another QB, and the team is definitely trading Jimmy Garoppolo.
“What happened yesterday, kind of an under the radar move, but definitely something that was very relevant, was the deal the 49ers signed Nate Sudfeld to,” Maiocco told Papa & Lund Friday. “Nate Sudfeld last year as the third-string quarterback, remained on the practice squad for the entire season basically, was elevated three times to the active roster but didn’t play a snap.
“They gave him, according to Adam Schefter, a one-year, fully-guaranteed $2 million contract. That is not the kind of contract you give a guy you anticipate is going to be on the practice squad. That’s the kind of contract you give a guy to be the backup quarterback.
“Right there I think that closes the door on [Marcus] Mariota, closes the door on Tyrod Taylor, Mitchell Trubisky and I think it closes the door on Jimmy Garoppolo.”
The 49ers are relying on Garoppolo’s $25.5 million contract to come off the books in order to give them the cap space they need to not only re-sign some key players, but lock in stars like Deebo Samuel and Nick Bosa to extensions.
“I just don’t see any possible reason or I don’t even know if they could make it happen with all the stuff they want to get accomplished this offseason, specifically talking about Deebo Samuel and Nick Bosa, but there’s other situations that are more on the front burner. Laken Tomlinson, D.J. Jones, guys they are hoping to re-sign, and getting out there on the free agent market, I just don’t know they could do any of that stuff with Jimmy Garoppolo burning a hole in their salary cap at $25 million.”
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