49ers' Jimmy Garoppolo Wasn't Bothered by Kyle Shanahan's Comments on Future
May 5, 2021
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo wasn't too concerned with a peculiar comment by head coach Kyle Shanahan when asked about the QB's status on the team last week.
When a reporter brought up trade rumors involving Garoppolo during a predraft press conference and wondered if the QB would still be on the roster after the weekend, Shanahan said he couldn't "guarantee that anybody in the world will be alive Sunday, so I can't guarantee who will be on our roster come Sunday".
It certainly got Garoppolo's attention, but not necessarily in a bad way.
"I know Kyle pretty well, and I knew what he was trying to say when he said that," Garoppolo told CBS Sports Radio's Damon Amendolara (h/t NBC Sports Bay Area's Josh Schrock). "I don't know if he worded it the right way, but I definitely knew what he was trying to say. It definitely made for a good headline, though."
Whether Shanahan's words were a comfort to Garoppolo, however, is an entirely different issue.
The Niners made an aggressive move in trading up to the No. 3 pick to select quarterback Trey Lance out of North Dakota State, putting a rather definitive expiration date on Garoppolo's time as San Francisco's starting quarterback.
Shanahan explained after the draft that the Niners only made the deal because of their desire to add Lance to the roster.
"When we made the trade," Shanahan said. "We knew who we were getting.”
Considering San Francisco sent three first-round picks to the Miami Dolphins for the opportunity to draft Lance, it's clear the organization feels strongly about his future in the Bay Area.
Shanahan told The Rich Eisen Show (comments at 10:00) on Monday that Lance will sit behind Garoppolo for the time being, but wouldn't go as far as declaring the first-round pick unlikely to see the field in 2021.
"I'm not going to sit here and say I'll never play a rookie quarterback, and I'm not going to sit here and say I will play him," Shanahan said. "That's kind of up to him. When he's ready to compete, which that doesn't mean he tells me, that doesn't mean I tell him. We'll all see it, and I think it will start with me, but it will go to the coaches, it will go to the players. Guys know when a guy is ready to compete with the starter."