So much for that: The 49ers find their way to keep Jimmy Garoppolo from a Seahawks chance

If the 49ers were going to cut cast-aside Jimmy Garoppolo, you can bet your 12 Flag the Seahawks would have been calling him, pronto.

After all, Seattle coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider love to show the league, as they often say, “We are in on everything.”

The division-rival Niners made sure that wasn’t happening.

Per multiple reports Monday, San Francisco reached an agreement with its Super Bowl quarterback from a couple seasons ago to begin this one continuing to stay off to the side, watching Trey Lance take his job. The 49ers and Garoppolo agreed to a restructured, one-year contract. It reduces his scheduled cost to the team that had been $24.2 million for 2022, a non-tenable price for a number-four he’s become for San Francisco.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported the deal contains no-trade and no-tag clauses, “assuring Garoppolo will remain in SF this season and have the freedom to leave in 2023.”

Yet the no-trade clause only means the 49ers can’t trade Garoppolo without his approval; Seattle knows all about no-trade clauses from Russell Wilson. He had one and got traded to Denver anyway, in March, because he wanted to be.

If another team loses its starting quarterback to a longer-term injury before the trade deadline midseason, Garoppolo could agree to a deal to become that team’s starter. That would sure beat him practicing by himself on a side field without even getting a 49ers playbook, as he’s been doing all preseason.

This restructure gives San Francisco the trade leverage it didn’t have until Monday. Garoppolo had been carrying the $24 million cost for 2022 while coming off shoulder surgery this offseason. No team was trading for that.

But had he been cut Tuesday? Then it would have been open season for the Seahawks, and anyone else, to explore.

News of Garoppolo’s odd deal came about 23 hours before the NFL’s deadline for each team to reduce rosters from 80 to 53 players for the start of the regular season. Until his new contract, speculation was the 49ers might release Garoppolo by 1 p.m. Tuesday. That’s because the Niners had tried and failed for months to trade him.

The 49ers and general manager John Lynch weren’t about to pay $24 million for a backup who has been off to the side without playbook all summer. The 49ers have moved on to Lance, the team’s third-overall draft choice in 2021 who appeared in a game against the Seahawks early last season, in Santa Clara.

Had the 49ers released Garoppolo instead of restructured his contract to avoid paying that $24 million, the Seahawks — or any other team — could have negotiated signing Garoppolo as a street free agent. That would have been at their minimal cost, not San Francisco’s expensive one.

Seattle’s quarterback situation isn’t exactly iron-clad and assured.

Coach Pete Carroll announced Friday veteran NFL backup Geno Smith had beaten out former Broncos part-time starter Drew Lock for the job of replacing Wilson in the Seahawks’ opener against Denver Sept. 12. This is Smith’s first full-time starting job in the league since 2014, his second NFL season and final one starting for the New York Jets.

Garoppolo’s new contract eliminates any possibility of him playing for the Seahawks at the 49ers in Santa Clara next month. Seattle’s week-two game is at San Francisco.

Monday morning, long-time 49ers reporter Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area talked on 710-AM radio in Seattle. He said that “worst-case” scenario the Seahawks game Sept. 18 was why the 49ers hadn’t released Garoppolo this preseason — even though he’s been listed by the team as fourth on its depth chart at quarterback.

“Why do that when you can look at the schedule and see that week two, Seattle’s coming to Levi Stadium,” Maiocco told Seattle Sports radio. “And the absolute worst-case scenario for the 49ers would be making this big transition to Trey Lance, and here comes Jimmy Garoppolo strolling in wearing Seattle Seahawks colors and beating the 49ers in front of his former home crowd.

“So that’s been kind of the thought process, (that) the 49ers have to do right by the 49ers. And they envision or they believe doing the best thing for them is basically blocking Garoppolo from a division opponent.”

His new, restructured contract does just that.