Brett Favre thinks 49ers are making a mistake at quarterback by going with Trey Lance on Jimmy Garoppolo

If there’s one quarterback in NFL history who truly understands what Jimmy Garoppolo is going through right now, it’s probably Brett Favre.

The former Packers quarterback has been watching the 49ers’ situation from afar, and as things stand, Favre thinks San Francisco is making a mistake at quarterback this year by starting Trey Lance.

“My personal opinion, I would go with Jimmy Garoppolo,” Favre said in a recent interview with The33rdteam.com. “He’s not as flashy, not as flashy. He wasn’t their first-round pick. And no offense to Trey Lance, but what Jimmy did was win and win, win, win again “Not flashy. So it’s not the glamorous choice, but my goodness, the guy won and put the 49ers in a position to compete for the Super Bowl year after year and deserve the right to keep playing.”

Favre doesn’t think Lance is necessarily going to be a bust, he would just let Garoppolo play out his contract.

“There’s a huge upside with Trey; there’s no question about that,” Favre said. “But [Garoppolo] was a proven winner. And this is often overlooked – is any guy a winner? And Jimmy Garoppolo is definitely a winner.”

Favre can probably relate to what Garoppolo is going through. The list of starting quarterbacks who lost their jobs after leading their team to a conference title game is short, but Favre and Garoppolo are on it. Although their situations are not exactly the same, there are certainly similarities.

Favre’s last game with the Packers was in the 2007 NFC Championship, which the Packers lost to the Giants 23-20. Two months after that game, Favre declared he was going to retire, so the Packers made the decision to move to Aaron Rodgers. Right before training camp, Favre decided he wanted to play, but the Packers didn’t want to be part of him then, so they traded him to the Jets.

As for Garoppolo, the last time we saw him on the court was in the 2021 NFC Championship, which the 49ers lost to the Rams 20-17. During the offseason, the 49ers decided to move forward with Lance as the starting quarterback, which opened the door for Garoppolo to be traded or cut at some point before the start of the season.

Another similarity in their situations is that both quarterbacks could end up with a division rival. After a season with the Jets, Favre moved to Minnesota in 2009 and led the Vikings to the NFC Championship Game. If Garoppolo is cut, he could end up with a Seahawks team that instantly becomes better with him under center.