Jimmy Garoppolo is a Full Participant at 49ers Practice
No more excuses for Jimmy Garoppolo.
He’s a full participant during Wednesday’s practice, a full participant for the first time since he injured his ankle. Meaning he has no restrictions and should play the entire game Sunday night against the Los Angeles Rams. Last week, he was a limited participant, so he didn’t do scrimmages with the team. And then he flopped against the Dolphins, and the 49ers benched him at halftime and blamed his poor play on his ankle.
Now Garoppolo needs to find a way to play better and win games. No more excuses.
“I think he probably could have continued to get through most of the game,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said, “but I think (the ankle injury) prohibited him from being at his best. I expect him to get better. I don’t think he had too many big setbacks last week, so I expect it to feel a little bit better this week.”
But Shanahan doesn’t expect it to feel 100-percent better. He expects Garoppolo to deal with it possibly all season.
“It’s how high-ankle sprains are,” Shanahan explained. “Ben Garland has been going through it for a while. He came back from it after having a month off and you could see on some plays his first week that he really struggled because of it. You could see it in the second week. You still see it at times. People have high-ankle sprains and they’ll affect you sometimes throughout an entire year. It pretty much is as simple as that.
“It makes it hard for you to play at your best, but that doesn’t mean you can’t play. Lots of guys go out there and they have things that prohibit them from being their best, but if you can play you still have to go out there and perform. I’ll be the judge of that watching him throughout the week. If he has a good week of practice and looks like he gives us the best chance to win, then I won’t hesitate. If it looks like it hurts in the game and is prohibiting him, we’ll do what we did again.”
Sounds like Shanahan is challenging Garoppolo. Sounds like he wants him to prove he’s tough enough to play through injury. That he’s willing to compete when he’s not at his physical peak.
Sounds like a fair challenge to me.
Let’s see what you got, Jimmy. No more excuses.
NOTES:
Linebacker Kwon Alexander officially has a high-ankle sprain and will miss the upcoming game against the Rams.
Cornerback Emmanuel Moseley is a limited participant in Wednesday practice and seems on track to play Sunday if he has no setbacks from his concussion.
