49ers interview Buccaneers offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo had a pretty good bounce-back game against the Los Angeles Rams after an embarrassingly poor two quarters of play a week earlier. The 49ers passer finished the game 23-of-33 for 268 yards with three touchdowns. Each of those scores, by the way, was hauled in by three different players. In fact, Garoppolo did a good job of getting everyone involved in the passing game. Eight different players caught at least one pass, with All-Pro tight end George Kittle leading the way with seven receptions for 109 yards and a score. Garoppolo's performance was enough to impress Peter King of NBC Sports, who named the 49ers quarterback among his Offensive Players of the Week. "For a slumping and gimpy Garoppolo, Sunday

Kyle Shanahan has Bill Belichick's respect. The New England Patriots coach respects his San Francisco 49ers counterpart so much that he was willing to send quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, once seen as Tom Brady's heir apparent, to the 49ers in 2017. Belichick last faced a Shanahan offense in Super Bowl LI. He'll see it again on Sunday when the 49ers travel to Foxborough to play the Patriots. "Kyle's got a great offensive mind," Belichick told 49ers reporters via a conference call on Monday. "He really knows how to attack and stress a defense, and put the defense in a lot of compromising positions with his formations and play-calling, and most importantly, a high level of execution that his teams have always shown running the ball, throwing the ball, playing

One of the most bandied about questions in the NFL this year has been: "What's wrong with Jimmy Garoppolo?" But maybe a more accurate question would be – "What's wrong with this year's version of the 49er offense?" The answer to the second question is obvious: Joe Staley's stabilizing influence is gone. Staley, who played 13 years for San Francisco and retired after the Niners' 2020 Super Bowl loss, was the glue that held the offensive unit together. He started all 181 games in which he played and had mastery of both run-blocking and pass protection schemes. At left tackle, Staley protected Jimmy G's blind-side and gave the quarterback those precious extra seconds to read through his progressions and find secondary receivers down-field. After Staley's