Jimmy Garoppolo enters Sunday's game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with a lot of people wondering how the San Francisco 49ers quarterback will perform coming off his ACL injury. Will he be the quarterback who took the field in 2017 and led the team to five straight victories to end the season or will he be the quarterback who seemingly struggled a bit in 2018 before his injury?
Will Garoppolo struggle has he did during the 49ers' preseason game against the Denver Broncos or will he impress as he did the next week against the Kansas City Chiefs?
Maybe Garoppolo will be something completely different. We just don't know right now, but we'll learn more in a few days.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan does not doubt that Garoppolo can be successful within his offense. The quarterback had an entire season to further study the system after being sidelined last year.
Fans and the media are eager to see what Garoppolo does against the Buccaneers in his first regular-season action in nearly a year.
"I know Jimmy can play," Shanahan said on Wednesday. "I can't tell you exactly how he's going to play in every single play or every single game. I know Jimmy's going to have some ups and downs, but I don't sit there and try to make a different decision based off of one practice or one preseason game, and then flip the next game.
"Jimmy's working his way back. He's ready to go. He's as far along as he can be. I know he's confident, excited for the season but we need Sunday to come, not just for him but for all of us. We've all been itching for this game since the season ended last year, and when you're coming back from an injury, I think it's even heightened for those type of players."
Garoppolo isn't too concerned about his knee. Somewhere along the path from September 23, 2018, in Kansas City to today, the quarterback got past several hurdles, both physical and mental.
As for Garoppolo's knee, the quarterback hasn't worried about that for some time.
"That was back in OTAs (when) I really stopped worrying about it," Garoppolo told reporters on Wednesday. "It's kind of one of those things you put out of your head. I have so many other things to worry about that you can't really be worrying about that all the time."
Garoppolo is eager to get on the field to prove himself. There has been a lot of offseason noise surrounding his health and the expectations for the upcoming season. A good game on Sunday will silence a lot of the quarterback's doubters.
"I'm excited to get back out there," Garoppolo continued. "I don't know; you can't really listen to all that stuff. We've got so much going on with our stuff mentally, physically, that you're trying to deal with all that. It's exciting to be back."
Shanahan knows how much his quarterback had to deal with since the injury. There was only so much work he could give Garoppolo during the preseason without risking his health and the health of the starters out there with him.
"No one gets to play a lot in the preseason, especially quarterbacks," Shanahan added. "You get hit. He got hit a couple of times but not too much, but it's the same for everyone coming back from an ACL. They go through the whole preparation of getting their body ready, trying to get their mind ready, which they're always as ready for as can be, but they've got to go out there and go through it.
"You hope it happens in the first quarter in the first game, but that usually takes a little bit of time."
