General manager John Lynch is with his team as the San Francisco 49ers staff prepares the South squad for Saturday's Reese's Senior Bowl game. He took a moment out of his week to speak with Ian Rapoport of NFL Network for the RapSheet and Friends podcast.
The big offseason storyline in Santa Clara will be the recovery of Jimmy Garoppolo, who suffered a torn ACL four months ago to the day. Rapoport asked the 49ers general manager about his franchise quarterback's progress.
"Jimmy is doing great," Lynch said. "He's back in Santa Clara at our facility and just really vigorously attacking his rehab. There's nothing nice about an ACL rehab. One thing, putting a positive spin on it, and this is not positive for us, but Jerick McKinnon did it six weeks before him (Note: McKinnon's injury took place about three weeks before Garoppolo's). So our starting running back and our starting quarterback. The good thing is they have a buddy to kind of go through this rehab together.
"Jimmy is vigorously trying to catch Jet, who is trying to separate from Jimmy, and so there's competition going on as well. I think both those guys will tell you that's really helped them, (having) somebody to go through it with. It's fun.
"Now we're starting to see him take the next stages of the rehab. He's doing really well, and we're looking forward to having him this offseason, and back and healthy on our team."
Head coach Kyle Shanahan has stated multiple times that the 49ers expect Garoppolo to throw during organized team activities (OTAs) in late May and early June. It sounds like, according to Lynch, Garoppolo remains on track to do so.
"We're hopeful he's going to get to take part in our OTAs," Lynch continued. "That's the plan, and he hasn't had any setbacks, so he's doing really well. I'm really proud of him too.
"Kyle, we all got together and said this can't be a wasted year in terms from the neck up, in terms of talking football. That was one of the hard things.
"Jimmy needs to play. He hasn't played a ton of games. How can you try to recreate that? How can you try to grow from the neck up and in your football acumen, his ability, and experience in this system?
"Kyle, I don't know where he found the time but he found it, and I think made a real effective use of that throughout the season as well."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Lynch, which begins at about the 13-minute mark, below.
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