The San Francisco 49ers' 2019 season rests on the shoulders of Jimmy Garoppolo. That's a lot of pressure for a quarterback with just 10 NFL starts on his resume. Then there is the whole ACL injury thing that went down over 10 months ago. So much of the team's success also depends on Garoppolo's knee.
But there is a reason to be hopeful. Garoppolo hasn't had any setbacks from his injury. Healthwise, he has looked good during training camp. While the team has declared the quarterback strictly off-limits to any overzealous defenders, he has been seen rolling out of the pocket, scrambling, and on Friday even had a reception on a designed trick play. That's right, the recovering quarterback caught a pass and scampered downfield until defenders closed in on him.
There was no collision, of course. Again, Garoppolo is off-limits. Any defender who gave it thought would have faced the wrath of head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch.
Just hearing things like that is reason to be optimistic, even if the thought of your franchise quarterback running downfield with defenders racing toward him makes your heart skip a beat.
There is another reason for optimism. Lynch praised the quarterback during a KNBR interview on Friday. That in itself might not be a reason for heightened hopes. It's what he said about Garoppolo that is.
"The best news is we haven't had to really manage him at all in terms of we've had no flare-ups (from the injury), and all that," Lynch said. "We're always mindful of how he's doing but the report every day is good. So we can leave him out there, and he's doing a very, very good job."
That's wonderful news. Garoppolo looks healthy. We kind of already knew that. Wait, there was more.
"And you're seeing some throws that very few people in the world can make," Lynch continued, "and that's an awesome feeling."
That's pretty good news, too. Most of the reports until now have focused on Garoppolo's health or his continued familiarization with Shanahan's intricate offense. But Lynch is seeing him make some pretty impressive throws, apparently. That's noteworthy.
During a sit-down with Grant Cohn of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat on Friday, Lynch provided an example of one such impressive play.
"There was a throw yesterday (Thursday) in red-zone period where he kind of cocked it, had his arm, didn't even reload, and shot it just with his wrist," Lynch told Cohn. "So there's things he can do, you're right, that few people in this world (can do)."
The 49ers GM acknowledges that Garoppolo still needs reps. Remember the whole 10 start thing? Only eight of those have been with Shanahan. It doesn't matter if he knows that playbook inside and out. The quarterback will only continue to develop with experience.
"So it's just the consistency that comes with just being out there," Lynch added during the KNBR interview, "and continuing to have a better grasp on this offense. The returns are good. The same can be said for Nick Mullens and C.J. Beathard. They're getting better."
Shanahan is confident his quarterback is where he needs to be when it comes to the mental part of mastering the offense. Now, he just needs to get out there and do it.
"You can repeat it, and learn it, and know it, but getting in the heat of battle and just reacting, and having a clear mind, and it just being automatic to different looks, different situations and stuff, that comes with experience," Shanahan said on Thursday. "Jimmy hasn't gotten a lot of that in our games yet. I was really hoping to go through that last year. We all know the unfortunate thing happened, so we didn't."
Lynch told Cohn something similar during their discussion.
"The mental part, it's not that he's not strong there," Lynch said. "He needs experience, and the only way to get that is by playing. He's a guy who sat behind Tom (Brady) a lot and played in a spread offense where they never huddled, so a lot of things are new to him. We were so looking forward to that process transpiring last year. We didn't get it. So we tried to simulate it as much as you can, but ultimately you have to play."
You can listen to the entire KNBR interview with Lynch below.
You can watch Lynch's interview with Cohn below.
— Grant Cohn (@grantcohn) August 2, 2019
