SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Jimmy Garoppolo’s re-entry to the 49ers is underway. Did he ever leave? Well, he certainly wasn’t part of training camp practices and meetings. Instead, he was isolated to throwing on a side field with his repaired shoulder, awaiting an opportunity elsewhere that would never arise.
So the 49ers found a way to keep him on the roster ahead of Tuesday’s deadline to reach the 53-man limit. A day after Garoppolo agreed to cut his salary from $24 million to $6.5 million befitting his backup role to Trey Lance, coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch explained on a media conference call how all this came to fruition, in relatively rapid fashion.
Garoppolo and Lance were not made available on the call. The 49ers canceled Tuesday’s practice and it’s believed players get Wednesday off, so the quarterbacks are expected to talk to reporters on Thursday.
Here are the top takeaways from Tuesday’s call with the 49ers’ brass:
1. NFL’s loss is 49ers’ gain
Shanahan voiced unwavering support for Lance, never once hinting that his first full year as a starter will be on a short leash with Garoppolo in the bullpen.
Said Shanahan: “I don’t think Trey needs much pushing. This wasn’t anything like, ‘Hey, we need to do this for the team, or let’s do this for Trey.’ It was, ‘Hey, oh my God, Jimmy is available as a backup quarterback for us.’ We never thought this could happen. There’s only 32 starting QBs in this league and we have two of them now. … Nobody in the league believed this was the outcome that would be but it ended up that way and we are thankful it did.”
They don’t just have two quarterbacks, however. Rookie Brock Purdy, the No. 262nd and final pick of the draft, has gone from “Mr. Irrelevant” to a 53-man roster, having outplayed Nate Sudfeld, who got $2 million guaranteed to, well, compete in camp.
2. Garoppolo is ready
Before rehashing the tale of how this came to be, let’s look ahead to the season: Garoppolo will be Lance’s backup (ahead of Purdy) in the Sept. 11 season opener at Chicago, which is not far from Jimmy G’s hometown of Arlington Heights, Ill., and where he won not only his 49ers starting debut in 2017 but an Oct. 30 game last year that helped flip the season.
Anyhow, Garoppolo is a go for backup duty. He should know the 49ers’ scheme more than anyone after five seasons, so don’t put too much weight on the symbolism of him not having a playbook, although his lack of practice time in camp could be a glaring concern.
“We have zero worries about him not having a playbook. I don’t have one either,” Shanahan quipped. “As for putting him through a workout, that is what he does every day. He’s been throwing to players, our rehab players.”
Shanahan noted that veteran quarterbacks routinely have been “signed off the couch” and been game ready, and he listed Josh McCown as an example.
“Jimmy’s been here, he’s been rehabbing, he’s been in great shape, he’s ready to go,” Shanahan added. “Of course you’d like your backup quarterback to get reps in camp, but that was not an option. Once that final preseason game ended, I’m glad what was a great option for him was a great option for us.”
Added Lynch: “Once doctors cleared him with no restrictions, we thought the smart thing was to build him up, in a controlled environment. … Jimmy felt good about that and so did we. He’s past the end of that ramp-up and it leaves him in a good position. We believe Jimmy’s ready.”
3. Why Garoppolo chose this route
Six months ago, Garoppolo underwent surgery to repair what initially was called a torn capsule in his throwing shoulder. That, Shanahan said Tuesday, “ended the possibility of trading him at that time. Everyone was in a wait-and-see approach.” What we saw unfold was a wild game of “musical chairs” among quarterbacks, as Shanahan accurately described. “It didn’t seem realistic he’d sign here and a lot of teams thought he’d fall in their laps for a better situation,” Shanahan added.
But the 49ers were not going to welcome Garoppolo to stay at his $24.2 million base salary in the final year of his contract, which was a then-record deal signed in February 2018.
“Kyle and I just started floating the idea a month ago: ‘What if we kept him here in a backup capacity?’ ” Lynch recalled. “We shared that with Jimmy, and it was important for Kyle to let Trey know that was a possibility.
“I understand it completely from Jimmy’s side. He had his current contract. They were going to exhaust every opportunity,” Lynch added. “They waited it out. We waited it out. Then we were in communication and came to fruition yesterday morning and it was finished as we got off the practice field.”
4. QB harmony
This is not the Joe-vs.-Steve ice age, although both Joe Montana and Steve Young now say their co-existence on the 49ers’ roster from 1987-92 wasn’t as ornery as outsiders depicted it.
Can Jimmy and Trey get along?
“I know those dudes do like each other,” Shanahan said.
Both quarterbacks have echoed that message over the past year. But now that their roles are flipped on the depth chart, what will that dynamic be like?
“Trey was great,” Shanahan said. “There were no problems with it at all. I told him the same as Jimmy. It had to be a backup-type deal. Jimmy knew that was the only option. Jimmy and Trey have a great relationship. Trey actually likes having Jimmy in the building.”
Garoppolo beat out Lance in last year’s training camp to remain the starter, but after the season, Garoppolo said in an April interview on SiriusXM NFL Radio that: “It was a strange year. I don’t know if I wish that for anybody. It worked out. We’re here now.”
Lance said last week he’s only talked to Garoppolo in passing during camp, that the deposed starter hasn’t been in meetings. Garoppolo led more by example than by classroom mentorship a year ago. That likely won’t change. Lance will be tutored not by his predecessor but rather Shanahan and assistants Brian Griese, Bobby Slowik and Klay Kubiak.
“They enjoyed each other last year, were really good with each other,” Shanahan said of his quarterbacks. “When I told Trey, he was, ‘That dude was awesome for me last year and can’t wait for it to be the same way.’ You’re in that room a lot together. They like each other a lot. The more around each other, it rubs off.”
5. Why wasn’t Jimmy practicing?
Almost daily the past month, Garoppolo threw on the 49ers’ side field, a remote piece of artificial turf where staff interns fielded his passes as he directed them where to stand or run. Meanwhile, Lance took every first-string rep and seized control of a complex offense with few hiccups.
Still, why not invite Garoppolo onto the practice field if there was a chance he’d be the backup quarterback?
“Because the chances seemed slim to none with the possibilities that would happen,” Shanahan said. “We talked regularly. The first week of camp, me saying to Jimmy: ‘If you don’t like any of these opportunities in other places or the contract, we’d love to have you here in a backup role. I want you to know that but there’s no way you’re not going to get something.’ Jimmy agreed. We waited all camp.
“To me, it seemed everyone was waiting for us to cut him. Once the last preseason game happened and no one got injured, Jimmy thought this was the best situation and we were pumped. We weren’t going to put him in practice for his sake or our sake. He did have a $24 million contract. We were going to let him go on that deal. But him, salary cap-wise, in a backup role supporting Trey, if it worked for him, that was a no-brainer for us. It was pretty shocking to us.”
