San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo has looked good in his three starts this season. There has been a noticeable difference in quarterback play between the 49ers' first 11 games and their last three. Garoppolo has elevated the play of everyone around him while showing poise and command of the offense.
The 49ers have won three-straight games since Garoppolo became the team's starting quarterback. Fans are re-energized by the new-look 49ers, which was evident by the crowd at Levi's Stadium this past Sunday.
"It sounds like we got a good thing going," Garoppolo said on Wednesday. "The fans are excited. Levi's was, the stadium was on fire Sunday. Hopefully, it'll be like that this Sunday, and we'll give them another good performance."
As good as Garoppolo has looked these past three games, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan says the quarterback still has a long way to go. Garoppolo knows each game plan going into Sundays but does not yet have a full grasp of the entire offense.
Shanahan joined KNBR on Thursday night and explained why Garoppolo has a lot more work ahead of him.
"He has a long way to go," Shanahan said on the "Tolbert & Lund" show. "Knowing an offense isn't just about being able to draw it on the board or things like that. It's being able to go into autopilot during a game. It becomes second nature. There's no way possible that you could cram that in.
"He's done an unbelievable job of just getting to the point where he can process a game plan and get to a Sunday where he has an idea of everything. There's definitely mistakes throughout the game, which there should be when it's new. But what he's done is, even when he's not totally sure, he's kept his poise and still found ways to make some plays.
"It's very exciting because you know the ceiling is extremely high and there's lots of areas you can improve on. But it's pretty neat when there's a lot of areas you can improve on yet he's still playing at a very high level.
"So, I'm really looking forward to getting some time with him in this offseason where we can really start from the beginning, start from scratch, kind of give him a foundation of where to go and build stuff off of that. Then you see what the offense and team looks like going into the offseason next year."
Fans have to be excited to know that, as good as Garoppolo has looked through three games, he can only get better.
You can listen to the entire interview with Shanahan below.