Jimmy Garoppolo and his San Francisco 49ers are 2-0 and find themselves in a three-way tie for the best record in the NFC West. They hope to keep rolling this weekend against Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers.
Garoppolo is focused on winning and isn't looking over his shoulder at the 21-year-old rookie quarterback waiting in the wings. One day, the offense will be Trey Lance's to command. Garoppolo isn't going down without a fight, though, and fully intends to make any potential transition a tough decision for his head coach, Kyle Shanahan.
That's not to say that he has a bad relationship with Lance. On the contrary, the opposite is true, something Garoppolo repeated today during an interview on The Rich Eisen Show. The host was curious how the veteran quarterback has avoided any "weirdness" with the situation of not only constantly proving himself but serving as a mentor to his eventual successor.
"The way I handle it is I try not to think about it too much," Garoppolo told Rich Eisen. "Kind of go out there, play your game, let the chips fall as they may, and if you do good things on the field, good things will happen to you. Just got to keep winning games. That's what it's all about in this league. It doesn't matter if it's pretty or ugly. A win's a win."
Still, Garoppolo knows that every snap is essentially an evaluation. Should he falter, there might not be too much hesitation to replace him. That hasn't happened yet, thanks to the team's hot start and Lance still needing time to develop.
How does Garoppolo deal with the consistent evaluation of his play? He had a pretty good response.
"I think, not even just quarterback, I think every position should be evaluated that way," Garoppolo said. "As coaches, they're always looking to improve, and [asking], 'Can we make things better in this situation?' I think every position kind of has that, and that's the competition of the sport that I think brings out the best in everyone.
"So, whenever you've got a situation like this — or there's a million different situations ... everyone kind of has their story — but just any type of competition, I truly believe it brings out the best in everyone."
H/t to @DavidFJackson5 on Twitter for the heads up.