Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre has given his say on the quarterback ‘battle’ that is taking place in San Francisco between Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo. 

The quarterback position with the San Francisco 49ers is in a state of flux at the moment. It was meant to be a seamless transition between Jimmy Garoppolo to the #3 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft in Trey Lance, having had last year as a slow introduction to the league.  

And indeed the 49ers have reportedly allowed Garoppolo’s agents to try and find a trade partner and the team are willing to help out in any way that they can to get him off the books and let Lance take control of the team. But come hook or by crook, the 49ers just can’t seem to get rid of him.

Whether that be due to his large contract, meaning any team that takes him on will need to cover his near $27m cap hit for the upcoming season, or the fact that there just isn’t a team out there desperate for a quarterback right now after the likes of Baker Mayfield found a home with the Carolina Panthers.

And that leaves the 49ers in a rather odd position. 

No turning back?

With their actions, they’ve made it pretty clear that they are fine with moving on from Garoppolo and letting Lance take over, but Lance doesn’t seem to be setting the world alight, with reports emerging earlier this summer that staff were ‘underwhelmed’ by his play, and more recently throwing three interceptions during a recent practice session, hinting that they might be better off sticking with what they already have.

That means that they would essentially have to go crawling back to Garoppolo and ask him to be the quarterback, even though they obviously don’t think he is the answer to their problems, this despite taking them to the NFC Championship Game in two of the past three seasons, with one of them resulting in a Super Bowl trip. 

Which is why Brett Favre believes that the 49ers would be stupid to let him go at this point.

What’s he said?

Speaking to the 33rd team, Favre claimed that the 49ers were ‘crazy’ to move on from Garoppolo at this stage, noting that despite not being a ‘flashy’ quarterback, he has kept them competitive and that it would be a bit of a risk to move onto Lance who is still a relative unknown at this point:

The problem is we are probably well past the point of the matter being able to be resolved peacefully, as the 49ers may well have burned their bridge with Garoppolo, although with one preseason game left, there may well be time for Garoppolo to show what he can do and prove to them that he can still do something and force them to let him keep his job.