San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan warns observers not to read too much into how quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo looks during offseason practices. The sessions are more about evaluation and mastery of the playbook than anything else. The more comfortable Garoppolo feels within Shanahan's offense, the more success the 49ers will see in 2018.
Offseasons are filled with what could be perceived as good practices and bad practices. On some days, the offense may look bad, and maybe that means the defense had a good day. On other days, the defense may get shredded, and perhaps that means the offense had a good day. Then there may be days when neither is true.
You can say the same thing about Garoppolo.
"I don't really go out there and (say), 'Man, we dominated today. We're good,'" Shanahan said on Wednesday. "Sometimes it looks like he dominated because three rookies out there didn't know their coverage and they busted, and people were just running wide open. It just seems cool, but it's not. You didn't really do that good.
"I don't ever really get too involved into that stuff. It's just about each play individually. Did we execute it? Why didn't we? Did we get better from it? It's just trying to prepare yourself for real football, and so you don't get too caught up in that stuff. That's fun, and that's competition, which we all have, and we're all extremely competitive, but that's not Sunday.
"What I like to see in Jimmy is just go through situations. I like seeing him make mistakes. I like seeing him come in (and) work on it. And I like seeing him when we get in that same situation, same coverage, same looks, seeing him correct what he messed up two days ago. He felt the mistake, he understood why it was wrong, and then he wants to correct it himself, not (us saying), 'Hey, that's wrong. Do it this way.'
"I want him to understand it. Sometimes when things don't work out, you learn. And you've got to know the whys, and that's what allows you to continue to have success over time."
Garoppolo was impressive in his five starts last season following his crash course absorbing the playbook. The quarterback didn't have an opportunity during the season to learn the reasoning behind the plays he was studying. The team was merely trying to prepare him for each week's opponent.
"Maybe we're going to mess him up by teaching him more," Shanahan said. "I'm just joking with that but those five games, things went very well. There was a number of times that maybe it should have been a pick, but Marquise (Goodwin) stepped back to the ball and made a play, so we never worried about that one.
"There was a couple of times where the defense made some plays. In Chicago, we moved the ball very well (and) we didn't get in the end zone once. There's things that, as everyone knows what they're doing, of course, we're going to be better. We've got to go out and do it. I think that's the question. 'Oh man, how are we going to look now that Jimmy has an offseason?' Well, he did look pretty good last year, and he's going to be much more comfortable in there and know a lot more of what he is doing (this year). And guys are going to be able to play together and understand situations better."
Garoppolo averaged over 300 yards per game in his five starts last year. The 49ers offense averaged 409.6 total yards per game in those final five games of the season. What are the expectations for Garoppolo and the offense in 2018? Shanahan simply expects the team to be better.
"Who was No. 1 those last five weeks? I don't know how much big(er) of a jump you guys are going to see, but you are better," Shanahan continued. "When you talk about expectations and stuff, I don't know how you live up to that. He did very good last year, the offense did. So if you had 400 yards a game, does that mean we have to have 600 for these first five games to improve? I don't know what the numbers will be.
"I think we'll be a better offense. I'm pretty confident in that."
The 49ers roster has undergone a significant change since Shanahan and the current regime took over early last year. The head coach believes the entire team is improving with each passing offseason. That doesn't mean there aren't obstacles that could impact its success during the upcoming season.
"When it comes down to it, you expect to win every game and we all know we're not going to, for the most part," Shanahan said. "Someday, someone will. That's how you think. We put a lot of work into the year. We've gone through a lot of things. We've changed the roster over a ton. We've been together as a coaching staff more. We go through this every single day, and what I'm happy with, when I look out on the field at our players, when I look at our coaches, we're better. We're deeper, we're faster, we move together, our 11 guys, better together, and that should happen. We've done it longer. We've had more time to build the personnel, but it's been a year-and-a-half. We plan to do this every single year.
"Does that mean your record changes? Football games are hard. You've got to win those at the end. You've got to protect the ball. You can't turn it over and have penalties. Injuries change everything. We'll deal with that when it comes.
"I know we're better, and that's what I'm excited about, and that's what I always want to make sure we're doing. I always say it so it can be annoying, but you're getting better or worse. You're never staying the same."