On Monday, San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan offered up yet another vote of confidence in his quarterback when asked if Jimmy Garoppolo would be his starter next season.
"Yes, I do believe Jimmy's going to be our quarterback next year," Shanahan responded.
Of course, the coach also noted that the team will always look at ways to upgrade every position. That presumably includes quarterback. Shanahan is probably getting tired of answering questions about Garoppolo's future but politely continues to do so.
All-Pro tight end George Kittle has heard his fair share of Garoppolo-related questions too and doesn't feel there should be a debate. If the decision were his, he would once again be hauling in passes from Garoppolo and put an end to all of the speculation surrounding the quarterback's future.
"At the end of the day, I play tight end here," Kittle told KNBR's Mark Willard on Tuesday morning. "I just work here, but I think that I do have a little bit of a voice, and I think I've said multiple times that I love playing football with Jimmy G. And our team is different when we're out there (with him), and that's why it's fun to play football with him because I think we both have big-time changes to our [offense] when we're both on the football field."
While Garoppolo has missed 22 games over the last three seasons, Shanahan owns a regular-season record of 22-8 with Garoppolo as his starter. The quarterback helped guide the 49ers to a Super Bowl last season, his first full season as a starter.
"I can't say enough about the leader that Jimmy G is," Kittle continued, "and how his presence just kind of changes how the team is feeling, and how the team goes about its business, and how the team practices every day.
"Jimmy G, he's our quarterback, and moving forward, he's our quarterback, and that's all I really have to say about it because I'm just going to go with the guy who took us to a Super Bowl and played at a high level [that] entire year. That's my case for Jimmy G, and I think it's a decent one."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Kittle below.
