It didn’t take long for San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan to provide all the clarity anybody could want regarding his quarterback situation — specifically, whether Jimmy Garoppolo or Trey Lance would be the starter in 2022 and beyond.
Shanahan started his team’s training camp off with a bang when he spoke with the media on Tuesday. He and general manager John Lynch sat down with Garoppolo to outline the plan, which is now all about the second-year man from North Dakota State.
“It was great to talk to him today. It’s always easier when you talk to the person, he got to talk to both of us, so just the three of us caught up on a lot of stuff. And I think all three of us are very much on the same page. Jimmy understands where we’re at. We understand where we’re at. I can’t tell you how appreciative I have been of Jimmy and him being here. And I’m so appreciative of what he did for us last year. I think Jimmy knew and we knew what move we made the year before on that. Jimmy did a hell of a job coming to camp and winning that job and taking us real close to the Super Bowl, but we have moved on to Trey.
“We’re starting camp out this way. We think Jimmy would’ve been traded if the surgery didn’t happen and it did he needed to do it, so there’s no ill will there at all. But it’s good to see that he is healthy, but now it’s all just seeing how this will end up. All three of us are on the same page and we’ll always think about Jimmy. He knows we have a team to think about too, and we’ll work together to figure out the best thing for that. But in the meantime, he’s cleared to practice, but he does have a throwing program like all guys do when they get elbow or shoulder surgery, anything with your arm there’s a protocol in how you build them up, so they don’t reaggravate that, and he’ll be doing that on the side. We don’t plan on practicing him with the team. We’ll take it day-by-day and constantly talk with him and hopefully can figure out the best for both.”
Lynch made it clear on Tuesday that Garoppolo, who is in the final year of the five-year, $137.5 million contract he signed in 2019, has not asked for his outright release.
“No, he hasn’t had that. I think we’ve had multiple discussions. Jimmy when he gets out of here, he’s out of here, so it wasn’t like we had ongoing conversations, but we spoke when he left and we had a pretty good understanding of what was going on and because of the surgery and the ramifications of that in other team’s eyes nothing’s transpired as of yet. But he’s here; he’s reported. We’ll see what happens in the physical and we’ll move forward accordingly.”
Regarding Garoppolo’s health, Lynch said that things are in motion.
“Well, he had a good outside visit with his independent doctor. He’s one of the guys in the afternoon, so his physical will take place this afternoon. We had a good meeting with Jimmy this morning, Kyle and myself. And we had a really good discussion and the good news is he’s feeling great and doing a nice job with his throwing program, the ramp up part of that. And that’s exciting to hear.”
The move to Lance seems an inevitability, given Garoppolo’s limitations, Lance’s potential, and what they gave up to get Lance with the third overall pick in the 2021 draft.
