Jimmy Garoppolo's 59 passes during the Deflategate suspension of Tom Brady in 2016 was critical in the San Francisco 49ers' evaluation of whether to trade for him.

“It makes you want to trade for him,” Kyle Shanahan said. “Because you saw exactly the ability that you saw in college that made him a [2014] second-round pick. But then, when you see it in an NFL game, nothing changed. He didn’t get in there and panic. He still showed his ability and played at a high level.”

When Shanahan and John Lynch took over the 49ers, they evaluated potential quarterbacks they could acquire with Garoppolo being on the list and the other being Kirk Cousins.

The Patriots weren't interested in trading Garoppolo during the 2017 offseason.

“We made a call, and it was, ‘He’s not available, don’t waste your time,’” Lynch said.

New England reached out to let Lynch and Shanahan know that Garoppolo might be available at the deadline, and the pair rushed to meet with Niners executive vice president of football operations Paraag Marathe. 

The 49ers were hesitant to commit to an unproven player long-term.

“We made that commitment to each other,” Lynch says. “We [weren’t] saying, ‘Come hell or high water, this is our guy.’ We think it’s a worth a second-round pick to have a great look at a guy that we think is really talented. And then we learned everything else about him.”