San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle was a guest today on Good Morning Football and discussed several topics of interest. Among those topics was the dynamic between the team's starting quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, and the rookie drafted at No. 3 overall to eventually succeed him, Trey Lance.
One would think that could create an awkward situation in the quarterback room and possibly the locker room. That hasn't been the case for the 49ers, though. Garoppolo has been welcoming to the young quarterback and willing to serve as his mentor while preparing for the 2021 season.
"I know there was a story that came out that Jimmy Garoppolo was one of the first guys to text Trey Lance," Kittle said. "That's just the type of guy that Jimmy is. He's not going to say away from adversity, shy away from a draft pick. He has a fire lit under him, and he's excited to roll.
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"I know Coach Shanahan said it, I think I said it too, I think Jimmy played one of his best OTA balls that I've seen out of him. He was just slinging it left and right, so that was fun to see.
"The great thing about the Niners organization, we just welcome everybody that we bring into the organization with open arms, and we just want to see people succeed. And at the end of the day, football is a competitive sport, and competition is what breeds greatness.
"So, when you have two guys in that room — actually, four guys in that room, I think we have four very capable quarterbacks — but there's a lot of competition over there. And it's just going to be fun to see that progress throughout training camp."
The 49ers ended their offseason program last week and won't hit the practice field again in an official capacity until the end of July when training camp kicks off.