LA Rams: DeAndre Hopkins headlines a litany of NFC West woes

Niners now facing nonsense

The San Francisco 49ers tried to straddle the gap between building for the future and competing for a Super Bowl. The Niners’ front office fully intended to hand over the reins to second-year quarterback Trey Lance and have veteran quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo long gone by now. But Garoppolo’s shoulder surgery has plummeted his trade value, and other NFL teams appear to be content with their quarterback situation after the draft.

The quarterback market is saturated right now. Veteran QB Nick Foles is available, likely for the league minimum, and Cleveland Browns QB Baker Mayfield is demanding to be traded. Garoppolo and his shoulder will not fetch much, if anything, in this market.

The 49ers are a tough gritty team that loves to get physical, and they are always going to put up a lot of fight on the football field no matter what the status of the roster or locker room. But this is clearly a significant transition for the team. A rookie quarterback who has little to no experience is attempting to take over for a competitor. Right now, Garoppolo’s presence in that locker room is not a positive move.

The San Francisco 49ers did a pretty good job in the NFL Draft, laying claim to a number of intriguing prospects who I had hoped might find their way to the Rams roster.  Their draft class is pretty diverse and offers a smattering of talent for the pipeline to develop in training camp. Curiously, I was not the only one to notice how the LA Rams selected SMU hybrid wide receiver Danny Gray, a young prospect who can immediately step right into the Niners offense and become the swiss-army knife role that Deebo Samuel filled.

Speaking of Deebo…