San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is probably used to having a lot of Jimmy Garoppolo questions thrown his way. He actually made it nearly five minutes into an interview on KNBR without mention of his quarterback.
The question came, of course. Everyone wants to know how Garoppolo is looking because so much of the upcoming season depends on the health and success of the quarterback.
So, how does Garoppolo look?
"He always looks good," Shanahan said while laughing as he referenced the quarterback's GQ looks. "And he's playing pretty good too."
Shanahan added that it's been nice having Garoppolo back on the field. The quarterback took part in the 49ers' offseason program but was held out of 11-on-11 drills.
"Seven-on-seven is not real football," Shanahan noted. "There's no one in front of you, so that's more of a mental thing, just getting back out there and having to do stuff. But to actually have an O-line and D-line in front of him, it really helps him get his timing back. It's really tough to get timing when no one's going to sack you.
"In seven-on-seven, if he's holding onto the ball, I'm trying to yell at him [because] he's getting sacked. He's looking at me like I'm crazy because there's no one in front of him. Now, there's an O-line out there, and D-line. Even though they're not tackling him, there's a different feel."
Shanahan says Garoppolo is improving with each practice and all three days are an improvement over his play during OTAs. The coach also confirmed that the quarterback would see action during the preseason. That much was assumed, but all we knew for sure was that Garoppolo would sit out the preseason opener against the Dallas Cowboys.
"He'll play in the preseason," Shanahan stated.
The coach would like to see Garoppolo participate in the remainder of the exhibition games but reserves the right to change his mind on how many games the quarterback actually plays.
You can listen to the entire conversation with Shanahan below.
