On-Air Now
On-Air Now
Listen Live from the Casino Matrix Studio

49ers Notebook: Garoppolo talks Lance awkwardness and Bosa, Ford, Hurd return

By

Jacob Hutchinson

/

Photo Credit: Christopher Mezzavilla

We’re back, folks. Wednesday was the 49ers’ first day of training camp, a rare day when optimism reigns supreme and the vibes are pretty universally positive. And for a team which was dealt an unfathomably bad hand last year, it’s hard not to want to look at 2021 with a fresh set of eyes.

There were myriad new faces and old ones, featuring many of the guys who were so desperately missed last year.

Bosa, Ford, Hurd return

Seeing Nick Bosa return to a football field is something to behold. The man looks like he was constructed in a lab to play football, and given his upbringing and lifelong training regimen, that’s not too far from the truth. He appeared every bit like the Nick Bosa who won Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2019 and ranked the 17th-best player in the NFL by his peers going into last season, just with a knee sleeve.

He is an absolute force of nature, and while he, Dee Ford, Jalen Hurd and Javon Kinlaw are currently limited to individual drills, you got glimpses of Bosa looking every bit like himself on Wednesday.

Ford, meanwhile, has been approached with an abundance of caution, and it’s still unclear how the 49ers are assessing his long-term prospects. General manager John Lynch said Tuesday the 49ers are taking a “cautiously optimistic approach,” noting that his injury is “touchy.”

We really have no idea what to expect from Ford this season, but the fact that he’s at least back at camp after sitting for a year with a back injury which brought up talks of potential retirement, is an achievement in his own right.

Ford essentially lived at the 49ers’ training facility, trying to work his way back and build his body back up for a full year. His return to the field with teammates might not seem major, but it’s undoubtedly a milestone that’s meaningful to him, and the product of an effort that did not go unnoticed in the locker room.

Jalen Hurd returned, too, in a slimmed down frame. Like Ford, there can’t really be any expectations for Hurd. He showed tremendous promise in both of his first two camps, only to suffer back-to-back season-ending injuries with a stress reaction in his back in 2019 and torn ACL in 2020. A bad training camp could result in him being cut, and the only focus now from the 49ers’ perspective is for him to stay healthy.

His return, just as with Bosa and Ford, was another cause for optimism.

Garoppolo the sailor talks injury, early confidence, potential Lance awkwardness

Maybe it’s just a new season, or being back in press room with reporters for the first time in well over a year, or maybe it’s the fact that the 49ers have put an expiration date on his time with the 49ers; whatever it was, Jimmy Garoppolo was a little looser than he normally is on Wednesday.

Outside of the press conference setting, Garoppolo talks like just about anyone else, but he got his public relations schooling in New England and has a bit of a reputation for lukewarm press conferences. He’s mastered the platitudes which great quarterbacks often employ to avoid getting into the nitty gritty stuff which could cause them future headaches.

But the early fire-ignited energy that he’s shown on the field came to the podium on Wednesday when Garoppolo cursed not once, but twice. To be clear, this is not a criticism; it’s extremely endearing, just rare from Garoppolo.

He admitted what Trent Williams revealed on Tuesday, which is that Garoppolo probably should have completely shut it down last season. Williams said Garoppolo’s ankle was “damn near an inch away from snapping.” Garoppolo concurred.

“Oh yeah. That was pretty bad,” Garoppolo said. “Surgery was debated. But whenever I could avoid that, I’m going to do that. We all go through it, all these guys. I mean, we’re all battling injuries and shit like that. It’s part of the game, but the ankle has been feeling great. Honestly, it really has.”

His other sailor moment was talking about Mohamed Sanu, who looks like a completely different player from the last time the 49ers had him. Kyle Shanahan said that was basically the case as Sanu, like Garoppolo, had a horrible high ankle sprain with the Patriots. And just like Garoppolo, he’s shown out in OTAs and this first day of camp.

“He looks fucking good, man,” Garoppolo said.

And so does Garoppolo. His movement is fluid, his footwork is sound and crucially, he hasn’t shown any signs of hesitancy in planting or throwing on the run. He looks as comfortable as he ever has and seems to be fueled by this competition, which, if you buy what Kyle Shanahan said Tuesday, doesn’t exist.

If he plays like this throughout the preseason, though, there really might not be much of a competition.

Deebo Samuel said Garoppolo, “came back to OTAs looking like a different guy.”

Shanahan has said multiple times that he and the front office knew Garoppolo would be fueled by the team’s decision to draft Trey Lance. Fullback Kyle Juszczyk noted a new confidence level from his now longtime quarterback.

“Just from the first day that Jimmy was here, his confidence, it just exuded out of him and you could you could feel it,” Juszczyk said. “I think that says a lot about just the character of him being in the position that he is and recognizing all that we gave up to move up and get Trey. That could shake a lot of people but you know if it has, we haven’t noticed it.”

As you’d expect, Garoppolo was met with a flurry of questions about dealing with the organization’s decision and dealing with the dynamic of a young quarterback who will one day replace him. His fullback Kyle Juszczyk admitted that yes, he’s had discussions with Garoppolo about that awkwardness given that the team wants to simultaneously support both players without undercutting their leader for the last few years.

Asked if there was any awkwardness, Garoppolo opted for sarcasm.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, ‘awkwardness,’” Garoppolo said, smiling. “No, me and Trey, we’ve had a good relationship. We really have. It is what it is. This business is weird, but at the end of the day, we’re in that locker room, we’re around each other so much that, it’s just business.”

Other notes: Kinlaw’s knee, Yoga galore, and running backs

  • Kinlaw’s knee: Javon Kinlaw did not participate in individual drills on Wednesday, with Kyle Shanahan not providing any sort of exact answer on what Kinlaw is dealing with. Generally speaking, it’s caution due to swelling that Shanahan said resulted from a flight. Shanahan said he thought he had his knee drained, but could not verify that, and that the 49ers “feel he’s healthy, but a guy who stayed off his leg for a couple of weeks, we don’t want to just throw out there right away.”
  • It’s hot yoga time: If you’re one of those people who’s obsessed with the 49ers’ health habits, this one’s for you. Both Jimmie Garoppolo and Deebo Samuel said over the past two days that they’ve started doing hot yoga over the summer and feel like they’ve reaped the rewards in terms of flexibility and avoiding tightness. As someone with the joints of a geriatric who has also started doing yoga over the summer — and is definitely as athletic as a professional football player — I can attest to this.
  • Take your pick with the running backs: The 49ers’ backfield right now is as interesting as it’s ever been in the Kyle Shanahan era, with every single running back providing a different style. Kyle Juszczyk acknowledged that Wednesday.

“I think those guys can complement each other and I think they can complement Raheem [Mostert’s] running style,” Juszczyk said. “They all bring a little something different to the table.”

Newsletter
Advertise with us