Much of the San Francisco 49ers' success in 2019 hinges on the health of Jimmy Garoppolo so one of the first questions anyone has for head coach Kyle Shanahan is how his quarterback is doing with his rehab.
The 49ers' 2018 campaign was thrown into disarray when Garoppolo went down with a season-ending ACL injury during a Week 3 contest against the Kansas City Chiefs. He is expected to be ready for the upcoming season and even medically cleared for training camp in July.
Shanahan sat down with Peter King of NBC Sports this week and, of course, the first question was about Garoppolo and where he is in his recovery. The coach gave a lengthy answer and believes his quarterback is on schedule to return.
"People tear ACLs, especially at the quarterback position," Shanahan told King. "That's not going to change how he throws and how he plays. Now, he missed a lot of valuable playing time last year. He needs those reps. He needs that experience. He needs to go through some ups and downs of an NFL season, which we were hoping to get last year. Unfortunately, we didn't, but we know we will get that this year.
"You talk about how far along is he (in his recovery). He's probably as far along as I can say as anyone that I've seen with an ACL (injury)."
Shanahan shared that he gets to watch Garoppolo every day from his office window throwing passes to the training staff. NFL rules prevent the coach from talking football with his quarterback, but he can track his progress and watch how he is throwing the football.
Shanahan continued, "It's funny because I'll talk to Jed (York) or John (Lynch), we'll see him outside, and they'll come down and be like, 'Is he 100 percent?' No. He can do that all on air. It's still drops and throwing, and he looks great doing that but we've got to make sure he can be in a pocket, people are diving around his legs and things like that, and he can protect himself. We're not there yet, but we'll be there by training camp."
The injury to Garoppolo was devasting for the 49ers. Shanahan can find a bright side to the setback, however. He feels the team improved last year even without its starting quarterback and inserting him into the offense this year will make it that much better.
You can listen to the entire conversation with Shanahan, which kicks off at about the 9:00 mark, below.
