xJimmy Garoppolo was traded from the New England Patriots to the San Francisco 49ers on Monday night in a move that has sent shockwaves throughout the entire NFL and has major implications for several teams.
Looking at the trade for the 49ers, it means that John Lynch and
Kyle Shanahan now have the quarterback in place that they will attempt to build around. With the team sitting at 0-8, they could have had their pick of the litter at the top of the 2018 NFL Draft in a strong quarterback class.
It also means that
Kirk Cousins now appears to be off the table for San Francisco in a marriage that many had penciled in. It feels unlikely that Cousins is franchised for a third year in a row by the Washington Redskins and he could hit the free agent market.
Scratch the 49ers off the list.
A team that could be on the list, however, is the Minnesota Vikings.
This is of course contingent on what happens with
Teddy Bridgewater and his return to the field. Like Garoppolo,
Teddy Bridgewater will have eight games in the second half of this season to give the franchise an extended look at if he can be the franchise guy moving forward.
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The Vikings could be an extremely attractive option for prospective quarterbacks if Bridgewater is determined to not be the guy moving forward.
Drew Brees is set to be a free agent along with Cousins and the Vikings give whoever is under center a team that is ready to win now and win big with a loaded roster.
Of course, Bridgewater succeeding makes all of this invalid.
At the end of the day, the 49ers making this deal makes for one less team getting involved in 2018's literal arms race. Quarterbacks are hard to come by in the NFL, but one of the first dominoes have fallen in terms of franchise signal-callers across the league moving forward.
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