San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is now the highest paid player in the NFL following a massive 5-year, $137.5 million contract extension that was first reported by Mike Garafolo of NFL Network Thursday afternoon.

The contract includes $90 million guaranteed in the first three-years of the pact, with an average annual salary of $27.5 million per year. It was a top priority for the 49ers and general manager John Lynch to get Garoppolo extended ahead of NFL free agency, which opens in March. If San Francisco was unsuccessful in their attempts to reach a deal with Garoppolo before free agency, Garoppolo would’ve been franchise tagged by the organization, and would’ve made $23.5 million in 2018. So essentially, San Francisco paid market value for Garoppolo.

While Garoppolo has only made 7 NFL starts in his career so far, it’s hard to deny that more success will be headed his way in the future. After acquiring him in October trade from the Patriots, Garoppolo didn’t appear in his first game with the 49ers until November 26 when he replaced an injured C.J. Beathard against the Seattle Seahawks. On his second passing attempt with the 49ers in that game, Garoppolo delivered a 10-yard touchdown pass to Louis Murphy.

After his appearance in that game, the 49ers named Garoppolo the rest of the season, and then they went on 5-game win streak to finish the season, improving their record from 1-10 to 6-10 with Garoppolo at the helm instead of Beathard and Brian Hoyer, who was released and signed by the Patriots shortly after the Garoppolo trade was official.

With the 49ers set for the foreseeable future at quarterback, there are other areas on the 49ers roster that will need upgrading, with wide receiver perhaps being a big area of need. San Francisco is armed with the financial assets and draft pick compensations to make some major noise this off-season, and it appears very likely that’s exactly what’ll happen.

For his NFL career, the 26-year-old Garoppolo has thrown for 2,250 yards and 12 touchdowns, while posting a passer rating of 99.7.

[twitter-follow screen_name='tony_montalto' show_count='yes']