Jimmy Garoppolo probably wasn't too happy at first when the 49ers decided to pursue a quarterback in the NFL Draft, but he seems to have moved well past that and is now focused on making the best of the situation he currently finds himself in.
The 49ers let Garoppolo know in late March they would be trading up to select a quarterback in the NFL Draft, which turned out to be Trey Lance of North Dakota State. The move came just over a year after Garoppolo helped the 49ers to a spot in Super Bowl LIV, but an injury-plagued season from him in 2020 led the 49ers to invest heavily in the quarterback position over the offseason. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters in March that Garoppolo was likely "a little pissed" after hearing the news, which Garoppolo didn't deny when speaking to reporters after practice on Tuesday. But any bad feelings Garoppolo may have had at the time have since subsided, and now he's worried about being the best he can be on the field.
"When it initially happened, there's a million emotions that go on throughout your head," Garoppolo said. "You think of all the possible scenarios and things like that, but at the end of the day, I want to play football. I want to go out and win games -- that's what I do. It wasn't anything too crazy. It took a little while to process everything, but once I did, it was just, 'Go out there and ball.' You've just got to attack it. The NFL's a crazy business, things happen, but you've just got to attack it day by day and make the best of it."
Garoppolo showed his willingness to move forward shortly after the 49ers announced Lance as their selection on April 29. Rather than letting any negative feelings he may have once had get in the way, Garoppolo decided to contact Lance and congratulate him on joining the team.
"For a number of reasons. One, when you get drafted, I went through the whole process of being there," Garoppolo said. "It's a unique experience and just a crazy night -- all the emotions. You've worked so hard to get to that point and now you're there getting drafted. So I just wanted to tell him congratulations, you've worked hard to get here and everything, and just start off on the right foot. It's not every day you get drafted in the NFL so I hope he enjoyed it."
Since then, Garoppolo and Lance have gotten along well ("Trey's real cool. We've had a great relationship so far," Garoppolo said) and seem to be moving in a direction the 49ers would like to see. The lingering reality of Lance someday replacing Garoppolo may make things seem awkward from the outside this season, but it doesn't sound like something Garoppolo is going to allow to become an issue internally
"If you start thinking about all those things, especially as a quarterback, you're going to be in some trouble," Garoppolo said "I've got enough things to worry about, just with the offense and things like that, trying to improve things here and there. But at the end of the day, we're here playing football. That's what I love to do. I love to go out there and be with the guys, win football games. That's what I do. It's one of those things that the situation is what it is. It's not changing, so you just try to make the best of it. The way I do that, I attack each day try to put my best foot forward."
Ideally, the relationship between Garoppolo and Lance will become something similar to what the Kansas City Chiefs saw with Patrick Mahomes and Alex Smith. The Chiefs traded up to draft Mahomes in 2017 despite having the Pro Bowler Smith under contract, but Smith was a consummate professional about the move and did his part to help Mahomes develop into one of the league's premier players. Time will tell if the Garoppolo-Lance relationship works out in a similar way for the 49ers, but things seem to be going well so far.
"The relationship between me and Trey, I think it'll just happen naturally," Garoppolo said. "It's not something that you want to force too much. You don't want to make it fake. Things will happen and that stuff takes time. I think it's one of those situations where you don't want to go out of your normalcy and do something that's not you. So I just let things happen and take it from there."
