Shanahan says Garoppolo will Start Against the Bears
Kyle Shanahan delivered the news no 49ers fan wanted to hear Monday afternoon: Jimmy Garoppolo will continue to start at quarterback for the 49ers, even though they have lost three games in a row with him in the lineup and need to start developing their first-round pick, Trey Lance.
Here's what Shanahan said Monday about his latest preposterous decision.
Q: What is Lance's situation physically, and how much does his condition factor into what you want to do this week at quarterback?
SHANAHAN: "It has to do with whether we can play him or not. He's on pace to be able to come out to practice on Wednesday. He might be limited, but that's what we're hoping for. But in terms of deciding who's going at quarterback, that has to do with Jimmy's health. I wanted to see how his calf was. It's good today. And so he'll be starting. Hopefully Trey will get back into practice and have a good enough week to where he can dress. If he's up dressing, there's always a good chance I'll get him some plays in there."
Q: Did you spend this morning mulling that over, in terms of taking a deep dive into how Jimmy is playing and what Lance can bring to the table?
SHANAHAN: "We didn't go into that game thinking that Jimmy was one bad game away from losing his job or anything like that. Jimmy didn't play as well as he could. He knows that. I know that. I think it was pretty hard circumstances, and I definitely thought he could have played better, but that was not a game where if Jimmy had one bad game he would lose his job. We know Trey is the future here. We're trying to do what's best for him and for our team. Trey is coming off a pretty big injury. We're going to keep bringin him along and keep getting him prepared as well as he can be to always be ready to come in and help in the plays we ask him to do and to be ready to take over if Jimmy gets hurt and being ready to be the future for us, too."
Q: What has Jimmy shown you that makes you think you can be a competitive team with him as your quarterback?
SHANAHAN: "I thought Jimmy had his worst game yesterday. I thought Jimmy did some good things in the three and a half games he has played. I thought he did some pretty good things in our first game getting us up to a 41-17 lead. I think he came back and made some unbelievable plays to give us the lead with 37 seconds left versus Green Bay. And then he got hurt early in the game versus Seattle. He just got his first game back last night in that monsoon. It didn't go very good for any of us."
Q: Will you give Lance more practice reps with the starters moving forward?
SHANAHAN: "Trey hasn't practiced in two weeks. When he does come back, he'll probably be limited. I haven't decided that yet. I have to see where that is. Odds are when it comes to the game plan, you're not going to just rotating quarterbacks, because it's not an open competition right now."
ME: How far out of contention would you have to fall before you make Lance your fulltime starting quarterback?
SHANAHAN: "I think you're asking when do you start playing people just for experience? And when you're playing people just to get them experience, you start to do that when you're completely eliminated from playoffs, or when you feel the person is ready. Our record is 2-4 and we've lost four in a row, so I get why I'm getting questions like that, but we're 2-4. You get two wins in a row and you're right back to .500, and you have a chance. I remember 10 years ago I was on a bye week at 3-6. We were last place in the division. And we finished the year 10-6 and ended up winning the division. I get all the questions, but it's way too early for me to starting thinking about getting guys experience and giving up on the year in that way. I'm trying to do what's best for the team and also what's best for those players, not just Trey. Getting experience just to get it isn't always beneficial."
ME: Jimmy has lost three starts in a row. Why are you so confident he give you your best chance to win?
SHANAHAN: "Our team has lost four games in a row. I don't look at football like pitchers. This is a team sport. If you go off wins and losses for one person, I don't think that's fair to a person and I don't think that is accurate when you're dealing with football. That would mean a lot of our guys have lost four starts in a row if you look at it that way."
