The San Francisco 49ers officially placed quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo on injured reserve on Wednesday. At the same time, the team promoted quarterback Nick Mullens from the practice squad to the 53-man roster. Mullens will back up new starter C.J. Beathard when San Francisco plays the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.
The 49ers worked out seven quarterbacks on Tuesday but surprisingly decided against signing any of them. Head coach Kyle Shanahan said on Wednesday that there are no plans to trade for a quarterback either. Beathard and Mullens appear to be the quarterbacks moving forward — at least for this week.
"We needed to take a look at all those guys, see where they were at," Shanahan told reporters. "Some played in preseason, not all did, and we just wanted to take a look at them in person."
If another quarterback is eventually brought in, assuming he has not played in the system before, he will need time to familiarize himself with Shanahan's offense. Why not carry three quarterbacks moving forward?
"I wish we could sign extra ballplayers," Shanahan responded. "I wish we could sign extra quarterbacks, extra wideouts, extra safeties, but you've got a 53-man roster, we've got a lot of guys banged up. In order to sign someone, you've got to cut someone or put them on IR, and we've got a lot of guys who are questionable this week where we won't know until the end of the week whether they're playing or not. Those aren't IR candidates, and they're definitely not guys we want to cut, so it just makes it tough."
Is having three quarterbacks on the roster ideal?
"If it works for our roster, you'd always like three," Shanahan said. "If it works. It just doesn't always work. We'll see how this plays out week to week."