Last week, Jimmy Garoppolo admitted that his surgically repaired shoulder is not 100 percent healthy just yet. While his medical advisors say he is good to go, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback feels he is still trying to get his arm back to where it once was.
"Rehab is a tricky thing because they say, 'You're back. You're healthy,'" Garoppolo shared with The Athletic. "You're not completely back, and you're not completely healthy."
Garoppolo joined KNBR on Tuesday morning with one more start under his belt. He acknowledges that his shoulder is improving.
"It's good. It's been good," Garoppolo said on the Murph & Mac show. "I think, every week, it's getting better and better. It's feeling good, though, right now. Just trying to get this thing rolling, get the offense all on the same page. We made some good plays on Sunday, but we lost some points out there for sure. The shoulder? It's feeling good right now."
Garoppolo has his All-Pro tight end back on the field with him. George Kittle missed the first two games of the season with a groin injury. He returned against the Denver Broncos and was relatively quiet. He had only two catches against the Los Angeles Rams. Kittle was more involved on Sunday, catching five Garoppolo-thrown passes for 47 yards against the Carolina Panthers.
"I would love to have 100 yards receiving and a touchdown every single game," Kittle shared last week. "As long as I'm impacting the game in a positive way, as long as we're winning games, I don't really care."
Garoppolo understands Kittle's situation and isn't concerned with the tight end's lack of production in the passing game. The quarterback understands that not everyone can consistently have big games in Shanahan's offense.
"George was dealing with some injuries early on, so obviously that's going to pertain to that," Garoppolo said. "Our offense is cool because not every week, not every guy is going to have five catches, 100 yards. One week, this guy's going to have it, and the next week, the next guy's going to have it.
"When you've got skill guys who are committed to that and committed to that goal, and really are all just playing for each other, that's what makes a good team. That's what we've got. We've shown [that] in the past, and we've just got to keep doing that, and good things will happen.
"But yeah, I think George, he started out fast this past game. It must have been a little birthday magic (He turned 29 on Sunday) or something like that. But he was rolling early."
It was an awkward offseason for Garoppolo, who didn't know where he would end up for the 2022 season. He was pretty certain that it wouldn't be with the 49ers—until it was.
It would have been easy for Garoppolo to demand a release, but he opted not to burn any bridges, returning to the 49ers on a restructured one-year deal. Now, he is the starting quarterback again. The quarterback that head coach Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers were once trying to discard is now being asked to win football games for the team. It is a strange situation.
How that came about, though, is disappointing.
"You hate to see Trey get hurt like that," Garoppolo said. "I mean, the tough situation in of itself. I've never been tossed in like that as a backup, so when you do get tossed in there, you can't be emotional. You can't be thinking about all that stuff. You've just got to go play football.
"It happens in the blink of an eye, and next thing you know, you're in third down getting smoked off the edge. It's like, 'All right, wake up. You're in the game now.' I don't know. I never really got to process that. ... Once you're in the thick of it, it's football, football, football right now, and that's the mindset you have to have. And if you don't have that mindset, you're going to lose a lot of games in this league."
Next up for Garoppolo and the 49ers—the Atlanta Falcons at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The team remained on the East Coast after its 37-15 win over the Panthers, and is staying and practicing at The Greenbrier in West Virginia.
You can listen to the entire conversation with Garoppolo below.