Former teammate thinks 49ers' Jimmy Garoppolo delayed surgery to diminish trade value?

Eyes were raised last week when San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch announced at the NFL Scouting Combine that veteran quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo needed surgery to repair a torn capsule in his throwing shoulder he suffered during the playoff win at the Dallas Cowboys on Jan. 16. Garoppolo went under the knife Tuesday, and former 49ers offensive tackle Joe Staley, who played alongside the signal-caller for multiple seasons, had an interesting take on the situation Wednesday. 

By all accounts, the 49ers still plan to trade Garoppolo so they can shift 2021 rookie Trey Lance into their QB1 role this spring or summer. Staley suggested Garoppolo may have responded to that development by delaying his procedure to decrease his value on the market ahead of the start of the new league year next week. 

"You know, I think Jimmy is playing right now a little bit of the business game," Staley explained during an appearance on local radio station KNBR, per NBC Sports Bay Area. "I know Jimmy is a great guy, didn't make anything public, and is not going to split the team in any way or capacity, but it probably felt a certain way to him that they would draft a guy to take over his role. So I think he's a little upset with that business aspect of it, and I think the timing of his surgery now, is a little bit of a business aspect to it. Saying, 'all right, you're going to try to trade me? Well, I don't want to get traded so I'm going to diminish my trade value a little bit by the timing of this shoulder surgery.'"

As David Bonilla of 49ers WebZone pointed out, Staley added he has no "inside information" on this particular subject. 

Staley's comments came shortly after a report linked Garoppolo with the Indianapolis Colts following their trade of Carson Wentz to the Washington Commanders that won't become official until March 16.