Kyle Shanahan Won't Commit to a Starting Quarterback

If Lance is healthy, there's a chance he'll start against the Bears, but it's unclear whether his left knee sprain will have healed by then.

SANTA CLARA -- The 49ers might bench Jimmy Garoppolo soon.

After his third loss in a row -- an embarassing 30-18 defeat at home to the mediocre Indianapolis Colts -- I asked Shanahan if he will stick with Garoppolo as the starter next week against the Chicago Bears.

"I would guess so," Shanahan said, not sounding too sure about it. "I'm going to watch this tape and see if guys are healthy first of all, I don’t even know where our guys are at. It was good for Jimmy to be able to get healthy enough to play in this game today.”

"You mentioned you would guess Garoppolo would start next week," a reporter followed up. "What is your process going to be over the next few days when you try to make that determination?

"I got a whole team to worry about," Shanahan said. "Not just thinking about what the quarterback situation is right now. I'm going to evaluate everything, see where our team's at, see what gives us the best chance to beat Chicago and see what our options are. That's what you go into each week, finding out your options. We had two quarterbacks who were hurting this week. Jimmy was able to come back and play. We'll see if Trey (Lance) can next week, we're still not sure yet, but I got a lot of things to figure out.”

Translation: If Lance is healthy, there's a chance he'll start against the Bears, but it's unclear whether his left knee sprain will have healed by then. Fair enough. 

Still, the 49ers need to pivot to Lance as soon as he's physical able to play, because he's the future and the 49ers are going nowhere with Garoppolo.

Shanahan will talk to the media this afternoon at 3:30. Stay tuned.