© Kyle Terada | 2020 Oct 11
With the offseason just a week away, publicly supporting Jimmy Garoppolo has been a consistent them in Santa Clara. First it was Kyle Shanahan, then George Kittle and now John Lynch is making it clear that Jimmy G will be behind center next season.
“Jimmy is our quarterback,” Lynch said on KNBR Thursday. “We’re really excited about that. He’s a heck of a scout-team quarterback these days. Unfortunately, we can’t get him in the game, but he’s looking good on the scout team. We’re excited to be working with him moving forward.”
First let’s state the obvious: Even if the 49ers are going to pursue every available avenue to upgrade from Garoppolo this offseason (which they most certainly will) that isn’t something they’re going to say publicly.
But even if the 49ers have one, or two eyes towards moving away from Garoppolo, it stands to reason that he’ll be back next year, especially considering San Francisco may have played themselves out of a position to draft a top four quarterback. The win over the Cardinals pushed the 49ers back to 15th position, and while a trade up or a trade for a veteran QB is on the table, Garoppolo taking the first snap Week 1 is probably more likely.
“Look at Jimmy’s record when he’s been here,” Shanahan said earlier in the week. “Jimmy, you can win with. He’s proven that. He’s proven he’s a starting quarterback in this league. We had a couple other guys who got opportunities this year, who played like they have a chance at times to be starting quarterbacks but they did play like backups overall.”
Listen to the full interview below.