GETTY Jimmy Garoppolo #10 of the San Francisco 49ers looks on before Super Bowl LIV against the Kansas City Chiefs at Hard Rock Stadium on February 02, 2020 in Miami, Florida.
The San Francisco 49ers have repeatedly said that they plan on Jimmy Garoppolo starting under center Week 1, but that doesn’t mean a mid-season switcheroo is out of the question.
NFL insider Mike Garafolo believes rookie signal-caller Trey Lance will be more than ready to take the reigns by then.
“It’s just that Trey Lance from what I gather has already shown up there and proven that he is mentally at this stage of the game a lot more than maybe people thought,” Garafolo told “Good Morning Football” via 49ers Webzone. “And I feel bad for Jimmy, but there’s nothing Jimmy can do to stave that off.”
In fact, Garafolo is so high on Lance that he thinks he could help them win the division.
“I still like the 49ers, sans that injury karma,” Garafolo added. “And here’s the interesting part to me — I think the 49ers could make the playoffs and win the division and still have a quarterback change in the middle of the season,” Garafolo said. “I truly believe that. Now that’s not a knock on Jimmy G.”
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Kyle Shanahan Sings High Praise For Lance Post-OTAs
Head coach Kyle Shanahan got his first glimpse at what Lance looks like at an NFL practice during OTAs earlier this month. He was impressed, to say the least.
“It was cool, just watching him how he played in the pocket, he was very natural with how he’d move around in there and still stay a quarterback and be able to scan the field and go through some progressions and when stuff broke down, he very quickly could turn himself into an athlete and go from a quarterback to a runner,” Shanahan told The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami during an appearance on “The TK Show”.
“But it’s always neat when you watch a guy who’s got that athletic ability who still, especially at the level that he played at, he was able to take over games with his legs a lot, but he never forced it. He sits there and scans the field and really can play in the pocket and then he can play from numbers to numbers when he gets outside of it.”
There were a handful of top-notch rookie quarterbacks that the 49ers were thinking about when they decided to trade up to the No. 3 overall spot in this year’s NFL draft. However, it was Lance’s dual-threat capabilities that stood out amongst the others.
Lance Is Continuing To Hone His Skills Ahead of Camp
The 49ers don’t return to Santa Clara until the end of July, but Lance has continued to hone his skills on his “off days” with wide receiver Mohamed Sanu.
If Lance can show up to camp ready to rock n’ roll, we could be seeing him take Garoppolo’s starting job sooner rather than later.
“If Trey Lance is lighting it up in the preseason and he’s showing them day in and day out, maybe in practice and whatnot, they’re going to make the change,” Garafolo said. “And they’re going to go to him when he’s ready, no matter what Jimmy does.”
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