49ers Kyle Shanahan: Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo 'Coming In As The One'
SANTA CLARA (CBS SF) -- It took all of three questions before San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan squelched any talk of a quarterback controversy between veteran Jimmy Garoppolo and first-round draft pick Trey Lance as the team's training camp was set to begin.
Shanahan watched both players during the recent off-season workouts and believes at least for now, Garoppolo gives the 49ers the best chance to get the upcoming season off to winning start.
"There's no open competition right now in terms of they're getting equal reps with the same group," Shanahan said. "Jimmy's coming in as the one and Trey's coming in as the two."
The 49ers sent three first-round picks to Miami to move up in the draft to select Lance. At such a high price, Lance appears to be the team's quarterback of the future if not the present.
But it's clear that Shanahan believes Lance needs time to develop.
"I just treat it like I would any other situation," Shanahan said. "Jimmy, going through OTAs, what he's done, he's our best quarterback in the building right now. So, he'll start out training camp that way. And we've got three other guys behind him. Now we're going to give Trey the first chance, obviously, as the backup. And anytime a guy is playing a lot better than the guy in front of them is when you start to split reps up with that team and start to talk about it."
"Trey has had seven practices with us. And I haven't seen him for 40 days, so I'm not thinking about that right now. Just having Jimmy going, he's our starter. And we're going to give all those guys every opportunity to improve. And if someone ever looks like they give us a better chance to win, we'll make that decision."
But first the team needs to ink Lance to a contract. Team GM John Lynch hopes to get the paperwork out of the way quickly and get their young star into camp.
"It always seems to go down to the wire and I'm confident," Lynch said. "It's important that he is here. I think for any rookie, for every player, every rep counts, every meeting counts. But in particular at that position. So, we're hopeful and expecting that Trey will be here and certainly know the importance of him being here."
As for other key developments, the 49ers brain trust said the team has exceeded the NFL's goal for COVID vaccinations.
"Originally, everybody kind of had that goal of 85%. I'm proud to say, I think, we're up over 90%," Lynch said. "It really speaks to our players. We didn't enforce anything. What we tried to do is just communicate with our guys and rely on the professionals to educate them as much as possible. So, our guys really arrived at this individually and as a team and we're proud of them for that."
The club was also optimistic about the return of star defensive end Nick Bosa. He was lost to a knee injury early in the 2020 season.
"He looked great in person. I saw him yesterday," Shanahan said. "I got to talk to him for about a half an hour, just to catch up. He feels good. Obviously we're going to ease him in and stuff and we'll get to see him move a little bit tomorrow for the first time in person, but looked great and felt a lot better having him back in the building."