The 49ers may still have Jimmy Garoppolo on their roster, but head coach Kyle Shanahan made it as clear that he won’t be there for very long.
Appearing on an episode of Tim Kawakami’s podcast “The TK Show,” Shanahan referred to Garoppolo’s tenure in the past tense and called Trey Lance the starter.
“Had an awesome run with Jimmy, and it was great,” Shanahan said on the podcast. “But when you bring in a salary cap, and things like that, there are so many tough decisions you have to make. We made that a year ago. And we got to here, and I was so happy with how Jimmy played last year, that he took us almost to the Super Bowl.
“But this is something that we did last year knowing where we wanted to go with this franchise, how you balance out a salary cap, how you balance out a roster. And Jimmy gave Trey a year that I thought he needed, just to get used to this league, get his feet wet a little bit. I think our team’s ready for Trey, going through OTAs. … Can’t wait to get started with him.”
Shanahan was asked whether Garoppolo would practice at training camp, which begins Tuesday. That “would surprise me,” he said, adding that the QB would wind up “most likely somewhere else.”
The San Francisco 49ers didn’t trade up to select Trey Lance with the No. 3 pick in the 2021 NFL draft for him to sit on the sideline for multiple years. The time to move on is now.
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Shanahan’s comments amid reports that players on the team would choose Jimmy G over Lance.
Garoppolo has started 45 games for the 49ers since 2017 and helped lead them to the Super Bowl during the 2019 campaign and the NFC Championship Game last season.
Lance will start the opener at the Chicago Bears on Sept. 11 in Week 1.
