49ers won't engage Patriots on Jimmy Garoppolo trade talks?

The New England Patriots and San Francisco 49ers are two teams looking to recover from extremely underwhelming 2020 campaigns.

New England finished 7-9 on the year, while San Francisco finished 6-10. Obviously neither made the playoffs.

One big problem both the Patriots and 49ers need to figure out a way to address is their quarterback positions. The latter squad seems to have partially given up on Jimmy Garoppolo, while the former reportedly covets him.

Last week, Boston Sports Journal’s Greg Bedard appeared on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Felger & Mazz” and detailed the ongoing battle over Garoppolo between New England and San Francisco.

“Basically, the way it’s gone this offseason, there have been talks and the 49ers just won’t engage,” he said.

“In the terms that I’ve heard, they’re screwing around and they’re being, like, ‘I don’t wanna do this until we have something.’ … And the Patriots have basically said, ‘Alright, we’re out, we’re doing something else.’

“They can’t afford to wait around. And, so, I think that’s what the Patriots did. … Now, there is some belief that … the 49ers just release Jimmy. I think there’s a little bit of hope of that. But, again, that’s just hope.”

Essentially, the Patriots went out and re-signed Cam Newton mostly due to the Niners’ reluctance to engage them in talks for Garoppolo. However, he is still their top preference at quarterback.

San Francisco, meanwhile, has indicated on multiple occasions that there is only one player they’re willing to trade Garoppolo for at the moment.

Last year Garoppolo threw for a mere 1,096 yards, seven touchdowns and five interceptions during his injury-ridden 2020 campaign. However, just one season earlier, in 2019, he threw for 3,978 yards, 27 touchdowns and 13 interceptions while leading the 49ers to a Super Bowl.

Clearly New England is betting on a healthy Garoppolo being able to replicate his 2019 efforts.

Will they ever get a chance to test that theory? At the moment, it doesn’t look like it.