San Francisco 49ers

The Carolina Panthers remain a possible landing spot for Jimmy Garoppolo once he proves he is healthy, according to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler.

Fowler broke down the latest on the San Francisco 49ers quarterback Monday on Get Up:

"Over the next month, the plan is for him to start throwing a football before training camp. That's the loose plan and so that should heat up his trade market. And so the 49ers are hopeful to find a trade for him. Still watch for Carolina here because they're the team that's combing through the veteran quarterback market more than anybody else. They've been implicated with Baker Mayfield, but they've also discussed Garoppolo. As soon as he's healthy, the 49ers would be off the books on his $7-plus million in injury guarantees, so that's good for them."

Garoppolo underwent surgery on his shoulder in March and is yet to resume throwing. Joseph Person of The Athletic previously reported the Panthers were interested in a trade for the quarterback, but they were hesitant because of the injury.

Carolina could also stick with Sam Darnold under center after an up-and-down 2021 season for the quarterback. Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated reported the coaches "like the edge and fight they saw" from Darnold during the offseason program and believe "they have something to work with."

Baker Mayfield is also considered an option for the Panthers. Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports reported the team has engaged in trade talks with the Cleveland Browns.

Carolina knows it needs improvements at the position to improve upon last year's 5-12 finish.

Darnold, Cam Newton and P.J. Walker all started games for the Panthers in 2021, and the team had the worst combined quarterback rating in the NFL at 68.5.

Carolina drafted Matt Corral in the third round out of Ole Miss, although the rookie might not be ready to contribute in Week 1.

It leaves a few veteran options for the Panthers, but the lack of moves shows they will remain patient in making a decision. Getting a chance to see Garoppolo at full strength could allow the squad to make an accurate evaluation of its options.

The 49ers, meanwhile, hope to unload the $26.95 million cap hit attached to Garoppolo. Though the quarterback has a $7.5 million injury guarantee, San Francisco would be left with only $1.4 million in dead cap if he is traded or released while healthy, per Spotrac.

The NFL suspended New York Giants linebacker Justin Hilliard for the first two games of the 2022 regular season for violating the league's performance-enhancing drug policy, and he said Friday that accidentally taking his partner's medication led to the ban.

Hilliard was a five-star recruit who played his college football at Ohio State. He was signed by the San Francisco 49ers last offseason after going undrafted but was waived before the start of the regular season.

The Giants claimed Hilliard off waivers and, after playing just two games, he was placed on injured reserve in October and missed most of the year with an ankle injury.

The 25-year-old has spent much of this offseason working with the Giants' first-team defense with Blake Martinez recovering from a torn ACL. He'll likely continue working with the first team during preseason practices and games, though he won't be eligible to play in a regular-season game until Week 3.

In addition to serving as Martinez's primary backup, Hilliard also contributes on special teams.

The Giants linebacker group also includes fifth overall pick Kayvon Thibodeaux, Azeez Ojulari, Tae Crowder, Elerson Smith, Micah McFadden, Jihad Ward, Quincy Roche, Carter Coughlin, Darrian Beavers and Oshane Ximines.

With the addition of Thibodeaux, New York's defense should be better than it was last season when it finished with the 15th-ranked passing defense and 25th-ranked rushing defense.

San Francisco 49ers star George Kittle wouldn't mind having an extra week off to account for the addition of the 17th game to the NFL's regular-season calendar.

"There's a huge physical toll," Kittle said on Kevin Hart's Cold as Balls series (via Taylor Wirth of NBC Sports Bay Area). "And like, 17 games is a lot. It's a lot of games, with one bye, whether it's Week 4 or the bye is Week 11. I'm advocating for two byes. But the physical toll you feel it week in and week out."

The most recent collective bargaining agreement laid out a new 17-game schedule that began in 2021. In an accompanying change, the NFL shortened the preseason from four games to three—at least for the teams that aren't slotted into the Hall of Fame Game.

One could argue that wasn't an equal trade.

While the threat of injuries exists in the preseason, those games aren't played with the same intensity compared to the ones that really matter in the regular season.

A second bye week could theoretically ease the growing physical burden on players. The last time the league experimented with the idea, though, the results weren't encouraging.

The NFL's television partners weren't happy about it. Sports Illustrated's Peter King thought teams were adversely affected by the second bye because it was another interruption to disrupt any momentum the players had built on the field.

But the NFL of 1993 isn't the NFL of 2022. The league has added four teams since then, which would alleviate what was an issue of having some weeks with too few games on tap. The schedule itself has changed, too, with Thursday Night Football and regular international games.

Regardless, this is a moot issue for the time being.

Considering the current CBA doesn't expire until after the 2030 season, a second bye likely isn't happening anytime soon despite how much support it might have from Kittle and others.

San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan doesn't seem like someone who cares about outside noise, but at least one opposing coach thinks the team's decision to select Trey Lance in the 2021 NFL draft was driven by fan pressure.

According to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, an offensive coach on an NFC team believes the 49ers were "100 percent taking" Mac Jones at No. 3 overall "until they saw their fanbase [overreact]."

One month before the 2021 draft, the 49ers sent three first-round picks and a third-round pick to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for the No. 3 overall selection.

NBC Sports' Peter King wrote prior to the draft that Shanahan "believes Jones is the accurate coach-on-the-field type he craves."

The NFC coach's comment is interesting because King noted in the same article that Shanahan and general manager John Lynch "won’t care what order the draftniks have the quarterbacks, or any position."

King cited San Francisco's 2017 draft board that had Solomon Thomas and Reuben Foster as the Nos. 2 and 3 overall players, behind only Myles Garrett.

Amid rumors that Jones was the 49ers' preferred choice, fans of the team didn't exactly respond with enthusiasm.

In September, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported "one of the many reasons" San Francisco made the move was the belief that the New England Patriots could trade up to No. 3 to draft Jones.

"The 49ers considered the well-documented relationship between Bill Belichick and Nick Saban and knew that New England was doing legwork on the quarterback prospects in the draft," Schefter wrote.

Shanahan and Lynch seemed to take pleasure in keeping which quarterback they preferred a closely guarded secret.

Per Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area, neither Lynch nor Shanahan "explicitly" told the other which quarterback they preferred six days before the draft.

Lynch said he told Shanahan the decision would be up to him. Shanahan eventually told him Monday, three days before the first round.

"Man, I didn’t know, Coach," Lance told Shanahan on the phone when the quarterback was informed the 49ers were selecting him, per Maiocco. "You wouldn’t tell me nothing."

It still remains to be seen if the 49ers made the right decision. Jones had a promising rookie season with the Patriots, who didn't have to move off the No. 15 pick to select him. He led New England to the postseason, throwing for 3,801 yards and 22 touchdowns to finish second in Offensive Rookie of the Year voting.

Lance spent most of his rookie season learning behind Jimmy Garoppolo. The 22-year-old showed promise with 603 passing yards, 168 rushing yards and accounted for six touchdowns in six games (two starts).

With Trey Lance expected to take over as starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, there are still many questions about what kind of player he is going to be in the NFL.

Speaking to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, an opposing team's offensive coach pointed out that Lance's throwing motion looked "wonky" from what he saw in 2021.

There has been a lot of discussion about Lance's throwing motion since he entered the NFL. The 22-year-old even addressed it during a press conference after a mandatory minicamp practice last week.

"Just cleaning stuff up, using my lower half...I know everyone talks about the throwing motion and your slow-mo videos and all that, but it wasn't as much as you guys think," he told reporters. "I know everyone has their opinion on it, but for me, it's about getting the ball out, accuracy. Like I said, it's a lot different working down there or working away from the building because you're working primarily as a thrower, not necessarily as a quarterback. So there's little things that you change when you get back here just from a timing standpoint, from an eye standpoint, little things like that, but no major changes for me."

San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan did give Lance a few snaps in each game early last season. He also made two starts in Weeks 5 and 17 when Jimmy Garoppolo was injured.

An optimistic perspective would point out Lance's best start came in his second outing against the Houston Texans in Week 17. He finished 16-of-23 for 249 yards with two touchdowns and one interception in a 23-7 win.

The development curve for Lance always seemed like it was going to be higher than for the other four first-round quarterbacks from last year. He was the youngest member of that group (20 years old on draft day) with one year of starting experience at the FCS level.

Another reason Lance didn't see the field is the 49ers had success with Garoppolo.

Garoppolo started all 15 games he played and helped the 49ers reach the playoffs as a wild card with a 10-7 record. They advanced to the NFC Championship Game before losing the Los Angeles Rams.

Perhaps because Lance played the fewest snaps of the five quarterbacks selected in the first round of the 2021 draft, there has been a high level of speculation and scrutiny around him heading into this season.

Some of that has been fueled by comments from Shanahan. He's stated publicly that Garoppolo may not get traded even when he gets cleared from shoulder surgery.

Given what the 49ers traded to select Lance with the No. 3 pick last year, it's in their best interest to give him the keys to the offense this season. It seems like that's going to be the plan, but until Garoppolo is traded or released there will always be a level of uncertainty.

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Trey Lance will remain with the team at its practice facility in Santa Clara, California, to continue working out, according to NBC Sports Bay Area's Jennifer Lee Chan.

Most of the roster dispersed following the end of mandatory minicamp and with head coach Kyle Shanahan wiping out the organized team activities.

An additional week of training with some of his teammates won't make or break Lance's 2022 season, but it certainly can't hurt.

Even before Jimmy Garoppolo underwent shoulder surgery, the stage was set for the 2021 No. 3 overall pick to become San Francisco's starting quarterback. The team leveraged a lot of draft assets to land a franchise QB, and it will expect results before too long.

Lance's rookie year provided some cause for optimism. He went 41-of-71 for 603 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions in six games (two starts). He also ran for 168 yards and one touchdown on 38 carries, providing a different dimension for the offense than Garoppolo has.

The standoff between Deebo Samuel and the 49ers has been a bit of a hurdle in the team's plans for Lance, but Samuel's arrival at mandatory minicamp bodes well for his general involvement going forward.

There's ample time this offseason for Lance to strengthen his connection on the field with the 2021 All-Pro.

The San Francisco 49ers like what they have seen from Trey Lance this offseason as he prepares to take over as the team's starter.

On Sunday, ESPN's Jeremy Fowler described the second-year quarterback's progression on SportsCenter:

There's been a lot of speculation about his readiness sort of behind the scenes, but from what I'm told, he's worked really hard on his footwork. He's worked on his throwing motion, tightening things up, and that the 49ers have been generally pleased with all that. In fact, he worked so hard last year he actually had to take some rest earlier this offseason to make sure he wasn't over throwing because he had thrown so much in predraft, thrown so much with the team. And so now he feels like he's in a good place where he's got a better command and he's trying to sort of navigate the chaos of 11 defenders coming at you.

That's really been the focus for him, I'm told, the last few weeks. And they've been pleased, they liked how he looked in the minicamp setting. And so, Jimmy Garoppolo remains available. [Lance is] likely to start regardless; he's sort of gotten informal indications that he'll be the guy and he's proceeding as so.

The 49ers selected Lance with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 draft after giving up three first-round picks to move up from No. 12. Though he made only two starts last season when Garoppolo was injured, it appears the North Dakota State product will get a chance to play full-time in 2022.

Lance provided only a glimpse of his abilities as a rookie, finishing with five touchdown passes, two interceptions and a 97.3 quarterback rating in six appearances. He added 168 rushing yards and a touchdown on 4.4 yards per carry.

He has apparently shown even more on the practice field, according to Pro Bowl tight end George Kittle:

It could allow him to thrive in Year 2, whether Garoppolo is still on the roster.

Garoppolo has been the 49ers starter when healthy over the past five seasons, leading the team to two NFC title games and one Super Bowl appearance. He has still been on the trade block throughout the offseason as the team looks to move forward with Lance.

"I expect him at some time, most likely, to be traded, but who knows? That’s not a guarantee," head coach Kyle Shanahan said last month.

The biggest holdup is Garoppolo's shoulder, which required surgery earlier this offseason and has kept him off the field. Teams have been unwilling to trade for the veteran until they see him back to full strength.

The 49ers will be patient with any deal, although it seems Lance will be QB1 regardless.