The local media knows that the San Francisco 49ers have looked terrible this season. Now, thanks to an embarrassing performance on national television, the entire country knows it.
The Niners dropped their fourth consecutive game, this time a 30-18 home loss to the Indianapolis Colts at Levi's Stadium.
"It was ugly," NFL insider Ian Rapoport said of the 49ers' latest outing during his Monday-morning interview on KNBR's Murph & Mac show. "Any time you get a situation like that, it's just all bad."
Rapoport commented on Jimmy Garoppolo's uninspiring performance, noting that the quarterback made some obvious poor decisions on the football field on Sunday night.
"Tough to fathom," Rapoport continued. "Looks very bad. And the fact that Kyle Shanahan's comments after the game were kind of like, 'Yeah, I guess I'll start this guy,' it's certainly something that does not look good in any form or fashion for the 49ers."
Rapoport is referring to Shanahan responding, "I would guess so," when asked if Garoppolo would start Week 8.
San Francisco dropped to 2-4 on the season and have played themselves out of any division title discussion. The playoffs are still a possibility, but the team needs a spark for that to happen. Could that spark be benching Garoppolo in favor of rookie Trey Lance, assuming he is healthy?
"If he's ready," Rapoport responded. "I mean, it's always reachable, it's always something that, if they win a couple of games, they get back in it. It's not too late by any stretch of the imagination. It's all if Trey Lance is ready.
"We've seen Jimmy Garoppolo healthy. We've seen him not healthy. We've seen him in the rain. Obviously, last night was bad, and he has played better, but to me, it's all Is Trey Lance ready?
"We've seen a game with Trey Lance. He looked OK. I would not say great, but he looked OK. It's just, is he going to help the football team? Because if he's going to learn on the job, kind of like Justin Fields and Zach Wilson have done, that is absolutely fine, but it certainly does not help your season, and it probably sends you in the wrong direction. So, all those things end up needing to be considered."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Rapoport below.
