The San Francisco 49ers' second-year quarterback, C.J. Beathard, now has six starts under his belt. His first five came as a rookie last year when he was still trying to grasp head coach Kyle Shanahan's offense. Things have slowed down a bit for him this year and, other than tossing a couple of interceptions, he had a pretty nice season-debut outing as a starter on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Beathard is the 49ers' starting quarterback moving forward this season. The team lost Jimmy Garoppolo for the season and isn't interested in trading for an experienced veteran capable of starting — a sign of confidence in Beathard.
Beathard displayed a lot of confidence himself on Sunday. The 49ers weren't able to come away with a victory, but the quarterback completed 23-of-37 pass attempts for a career-high 298 yards with two touchdowns and the aforementioned picks. He looked poised and displayed his toughness (a word frequently used to describe him) throughout the game.
Beathard joined KNBR for an interview on Wednesday morning and discussed the difference between his rookie and sophomore campaigns.
"It definitely feels a lot easier," Beathard said on the "Murph & Mac" show. "It feels like things have slowed down a lot for me just with calling the plays and then kind of visualizing what I called. Walking up to the line of scrimmage, you can start thinking about other things rather than, 'What the heck did I just call?' That's nice. That's a big part of it, and things have just slowed down for me."
How did Beathard deal with not always knowing what he just called in a huddle as a rookie last season?
"You just kind of try and put some of the key words together," Beathard explained. "'Ok, I know this guy, he's got an out route. Hopefully, he gets open.'"
Also of note is an injury update on Garoppolo. While he has been in the quarterback room with Beathard since his season-ending torn ACL, that stopped on Tuesday. Garoppolo left the team to have surgery on his knee, according to Beathard.
"He left for surgery [on Tuesday]," Beathard shared. "I think he'll be out for the next couple of weeks. I think he has to stay wherever he's getting his surgery for a couple of weeks. So I won't see him for a couple of weeks. I'm sure we'll be texting and stuff."
Garoppolo's injury occurred on September 23. He had to wait for the swelling in his knee to go down before doctors could go in.
"I'm sure when he gets the surgery, he'll disappear for a little bit because you've got to stay in bed and make sure to heal," Shanahan told reporters on September 26. "After that, he'll be around a lot."
You can listen to the entire interview with Beathard below.
