How Jimmy G reacted when Shanahan explained 49ers draft trade originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
Coach Kyle Shanahan gave Jimmy Garoppolo a call on Friday morning to explain the situation.
This situation is this: The 49ers will select a quarterback in the draft who will eventually replace Garoppolo.
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But, first, the 49ers expect Garoppolo to play winning football until the youngster is ready to take over.
Garoppolo was disappointed to learn the news, but he remained professional.
“(I) called him first thing and had a good conversation with him,” Shanahan said Monday on a video call with Bay Area reporters. “Obviously, no one wants to hear that. He wasn’t totally excited about that, like you’d expect. Jimmy handled it great, like he always does.”
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The 49ers completed a trade with the Miami Dolphins on Friday to pick up the No. 3 overall selection in next month’s draft. The 49ers sent their selection at No. 12 overall to the Dolphins, along with first-round picks in 2022 and ’23, as well as a third-round draft choice in 2022.
Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson are expected to be the top two selections in the draft. Justin Fields, Trey Lance and Mac Jones are in the running for the 49ers to select with the No. 3 overall pick.
But the 49ers are not ready to cast aside Garoppolo quite yet. And Shanahan explained that to him.
“We were very straight up with each other,” Shanahan said. “I told him how we felt. It doesn’t change any of his circumstances right now. He’s still coming in here and trying to lead this team.
“I told him how excited I was that free agency went a lot better than we anticipated with being able to sign a lot more of our own players than we had thought going into it and that we got a real good team coming back here, and we still plan on him leading us and getting as far as we can with him.”
The 49ers are 22-8 in the 30 regular-season games Garoppolo has started with the organization. Garoppolo has missed 23 starts due to injuries. He appeared in only six games last season due to two high ankle sprains. In 2018, he missed 13 games after sustaining a torn ACL in his left knee.
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The 49ers believe that Garoppolo still gives the 49ers a better chance to win this season than a rookie quarterback.
General manager John Lynch said he called Garoppolo later in the day and emphasized that point.
“The message was what we are doing, why we were doing it, and how he is still very much a part of our plans,” Lynch said.
