It sounds like Jimmy Garoppolo has been throwing the ball quite well at practice this week despite his thumb injury, based on comments from 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel on Thursday.
Garoppolo has been throwing on the side while nursing the sprain in his thumb he suffered in last Thursday's road loss against the Tennessee Titans. The injury is causing his status for this Sunday's home finale against the Houston Texans to remain in doubt, but it isn't because of his quality of practice throws, according to McDaniel.
"Jimmy is one of the best throwers on the planet," McDaniel told reporters during media sessions on Thursday. "He's very, very gifted in the accuracy and ball placement. He throws a really catchable, tight football. That hasn't changed."
So if Garoppolo is throwing the ball that well, what's causing the uncertainty for the next game? McDaniel provided an explanation, saying Garoppolo's availability for this week depends on how the injury reacts from one day to the next.
"It's more about how it responds and how it feels so you can have strength in that thumb through the course of an entire game," McDaniel said. "So it's looked great. It's more about how he responds to it and how it feels the next day. That's why it's kind of a day-by-day basis with him. So that's been encouraging watching it, and you're kind of just playing the waiting game saying Friday, how's it going to wake up and feel?"
In the meantime, the 49ers are preparing to face the Texans with rookie Trey Lance at quarterback, if need be. Lance has been running the scout team for much of the season after getting a start against the Cardinals in Week 5 while Garoppolo sat out with a calf injury, but McDaniel says the rookie has picked up plenty of important experience as a result, regardless of the offense he was leading in practice.
"There's not a ton of secret plays in the NFL," McDaniel said. "There's a lot of overlap between people are running. So when there is overlap, you apply it in your verbiage and language and use your timing. So it's incredibly valuable. There's always little details that they'll have to adjust, but every single time you're taking a scout team rep, you're in the huddle, you're using any sort of verbiage that applies to our offense, you're telling people where to go, you're using cadence, and then distributing the ball against zone or man defenses. All of that is incredibly applicable to what players have to do -- quarterbacks specifically on a down-to-down basis, whether you're scout team or running practice with the first team."
