San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who continues to rehab from a torn ACL suffered in September, joined ESPN's NFL Live on Wednesday to discuss his progress as he works his way back to the playing field. He is expected to take part in non-contact drills when the team kicks off organized team activities later this month.
General manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan remain optimistic that Garoppolo will be medically cleared for training camp in late-July and will be the team's starting quarterback when it visits the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to kick off the regular season on September 8.
"It's going along good," Garoppolo said. "Rehab has been very productive and moving in the right direction. It's just one of those things you've got to take day by day, small victories. It's brutal initially; I'm not going to lie. The first couple of months here are rough, but then you start moving around, throwing, cutting, running, all that good stuff.
"It's moving in the right direction. We've got OTAs coming up in a couple of weeks, and we'll take it from there."
Reflecting on the injury, which took place during a Week 3 contest in Kansas City, Garoppolo realizes he was probably fighting for too many extra yards.
"You've got to know when the [play] is over, go out of bounds, and move on to the next play," he added. "You've got to know which plays are more important than others. So it's about being smart. How I play the game, I don't know if it will change drastically.
"We'll see what happens once I get out there, but this injury has given me an opportunity to see the game from a different perspective. Just that mental approach of being almost a coach on the sideline, seeing things differently. I'll use it, and it will help me going forward."
Garoppolo went on to explain that observing from the sideline has allowed him to see the bigger picture, look at the entire play sheet, and figure out what he would call in any given situation rather than just wait for the call from Shanahan.
"What I would try to do is kind of match my mind up with Kyle's," Garoppolo continued. "The more we can be on the same page, the better. So it was a unique opportunity in that aspect of it.
"It's only going to help me going forward. I keep telling myself it's a blessing in disguise."
H/t to Samuel Bonilla for the find.
