San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said in October that the team hopes Jimmy Garoppolo can begin throwing and doing some non-contact work during organized team activities in late May and early June. The quarterback suffered a torn ACL on September 23 during a Week 3 contest against the Kansas City Chiefs.
"It's always a little bit better when you're dealing with a quarterback and stuff as opposed to other positions just because you can get him in, hopefully, in 7-on-7 drills a little bit early and things like that, which help those guys get involved a lot faster," Shanahan told reporters in October.
It seems the timeline is still in place and the quarterback is on track with his rehab to reach that goal, according to general manager John Lynch, who spoke with Ian Rapoport of NFL Network at the Senior Bowl last week. The conversation was for the RapSheet and Friends podcast.
"We're hopeful he's going to get to take part in our OTAs," Lynch told Rapoport. "That's the plan, and he hasn't had any setbacks, so he's doing really well."
More on what Lynch told Rapoport during the interview, including Garoppolo competing with running back Jerick McKinnon in the rehab process, can be found here. McKinnon suffered his torn ACL on September 1 during a practice after the 49ers' final exhibition game.
Rapoport rehashed on NFL Network this week what Lynch said during the podcast interview. He did, however, add his own opinion on what having Garoppolo back by the end of May or close to it might mean for the 49ers and the quarterback.
"[The 49ers] do expect Garoppolo to be on the field for the start of OTAs," Rapoport said on-air. "That is a big-time benchmark. If he's not ready, it doesn't negatively affect the season but obviously a huge lift for his team having their star quarterback out there for all of the spring drills. It just allows him to kind of ease into the offseason to make sure he's ready for the start of training camp."
You can watch the NFL Network segment with Rapoport below.
