Jimmy Garoppolo has enjoyed his time with the San Francisco 49ers. He was happy to leave the New England Patriots and finally have an opportunity to start, and he's done so for nearly three-and-a-half seasons. The quarterback has loved his experience in Santa Clara and formed a bond with the rest of the locker room.
That's why it was so difficult to hear from head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch that the team was planning to trade up in the draft for a quarterback. Garoppolo was supposed to be the quarterback of the future. A lot of things went through his mind. Garoppolo used his brothers as a sounding board for the thoughts going back and forth in his head. Garoppolo even contemplated a scenario where he wasn't with the 49ers anymore.
Obviously, he opted to stay and see how that decision impacts his future. The thought of asking to leave did cross his mind, though.
"Oh, no doubt," Garoppolo told SI's Albert Breer last week. "Especially when they first told me, you started imagining situations that aren't even possible. It crossed my mind at one point. But I didn't want to do that. I like it here. I like the people. I like the teammates that I'm around. It's kind of where—I don't want to say it's where my career started, but as a starter this is where it was. These players, these teammates, I wouldn't trade them for the world. I love these guys."
Garoppolo's conversation with Lynch also convinced him that staying and not taking a chance elsewhere was the right thing to do.
"I remember, when I first kind of went to [Garoppolo], and talked about this concept," Lynch said in May. "The first thing he said (was), 'John, will I have a chance to compete?' I said, 'Of course you will. We're going to play the guy who gives us the best chance. Yeah, you'll have a chance to compete.' Well, that's all he wanted. He's been so professional."
The 49ers did draft a quarterback, and from the looks of it, a good one. Trey Lance has drawn "oohhs" and "aahhs" during training camp. He has also, at times, looked like a rookie, so Shanahan and company are careful about what they say about the quarterback. They don't want to build inflated expectations.
When asked about Lance after one practice where the rookie quarterback looked particularly sharp, Shanahan's response showed that.
While reporters and fans left the practice excited by what they saw from the first-year player, Shanahan said, "I thought he had a decent day. I thought he did good with his reps, not perfect. But we're just evaluating everybody right now."
Garoppolo also had to deal with a lot of offseason noise surrounding his future. Many felt San Francisco would trade the quarterback before the draft.
"You hear all the stuff," Garoppolo. "I didn't know how much to put into it, because if you start thinking one way, and then something happens and you go the opposite way, that's going to make it even tougher out here. So I've really just tried to take it day-by-day. And even right now, anything could happen. I was traded two days before the trade deadline a couple years ago. I know in this league, anything's possible."
Shanahan and Lynch have praised Garoppolo's play this offseason, feeling that it has been one of the veteran quarterback's better offseasons with the team. Of course, some of that comes from Garoppolo being in the same system for over three years now.
"It's just the offense slowing down for me, being able to read the defense, have a feel pre-snap for what I'm doing and then reacting post-snap," Garoppolo said. "I think that, with every veteran quarterback, it comes more and more naturally as the years go. So that, and knowing yourself, I think when you know yourself as a player, know your strengths, know your weaknesses, in the offseason, you can focus on those weaknesses and try to make them your strengths. I think that's really where I've come a long way."
The plan is for Garoppolo to be the starter when the 49ers take the field on September 12 against the Detroit Lions. The veteran quarterback doesn't plan to surrender his job any time soon and hopes to present Shanahan and Lynch with a tough decision after the season.
"I always want to be the starter, I don't want you to take this the wrong way," Garoppolo added. "I always want to be the starter, I'll always fight to be the starter. But at the end of the day, I'm playing football. I'm loving it right now. It's a competition, that's what you're here for. I'm ready for whatever."
