People tend to forget that the player has a certain amount of say in a trade as well. Garoppolo has a particular sort of leverage at his disposal, and it comes from his contract. He’s entering the final year of his current rookie deal. That means he will be a free agent in 2018. So any team dealing for him will have to get assurances that he’ll sign a contract extension almost immediately.
How does this matter? Garoppolo could easily make it clear he has no intentions of signing an extension with those teams. They could of course trade for him and elect to use the franchise tag, but trading for a player who doesn’t want to play there and then forcing him to stay is a fast track to disaster. In essence Jimmy could steer the river towards Chicago if he wished. Something Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun-Times alluded to in a recent article.
Jimmy Garoppolo feels the tug of home.
It’s usually vocalized by his childhood friends from Arlington Heights, not satisfied with his status as the Patriots’ backup quarterback.
They ask him about starting for the Bears.
“All the time,” he said.
Then there is the fact the Bears and Patriots have already done business over the past couple years. New England traded for both linebacker Jon Bostic and tight end Martellus Bennett from Chicago. So the two sides have familiarity through communication, and Garoppolo already got a chance to meet with GM Ryan Pace and head coach John Fox during joint team practices this past preseason.
The Bears have the money to hand him a new contract, especially once they part ways with Jay Cutler. At that point it’s a matter of draft compensation. Odds are it won’t involve the #3 pick this year. None of the trades mentioned earlier went into the top five range. More likely it will be somewhere in the vicinity of two second round choices. Though expensive, the saying doesn’t change.
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If Pace thinks he’s getting this team a franchise quarterback, no price is too steep.
