John Lynch: Trade for Jimmy Garoppolo frees the 49ers up in the draft

San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch was on "The Herd with Colin Cowherd" on Thursday to discuss how impressed he has been with quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who joined the team following an October 30 trade with the New England Patriots.

Garoppolo has started the past three games for the 49ers and has been impressive. His Week 15 performance in a victory over the Tennessee Titans earned the quarterback the honor of being named the FedEx NFL Air Player of the Week. Against the Titans, Garoppolo passed for a single-game career-high 381 yards, a touchdown, and a passer rating of 106.8.

In his three starts for the 49ers, Garoppolo has led the team to three-straight victories (vs. Bears, Texans, Titans) and completed 77 of his 113 pass attempts for 1,008 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions.

The nice aspect of the Garoppolo trade – other than finding your franchise quarterback – is that it frees the 49ers up to address other areas in next year's draft rather than focus on the quarterback position with their top selection, which they were expected to do.

"He's looking pretty darn good thus far and it frees you up in the draft to go focus on building your team around him," Lynch told Cowherd. "That's something we're very much looking forward to doing. Absolutely, that is the position in this league, and I think we talk about it all the time but now we've lived it, and you see how when a guy comes in at that position and plays at a high level -- I really feel like the rest of our team was getting better.

"We played a lot of rookies early on, we've been injured a lot, but a guy like that comes in at this position and his play just kind of elevated everyone else's play, and we've been watching that and enjoying that ride."