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49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan added a new wrinkle to the conversation about the team’s future under center. He told reporters he expects Jimmy Garoppolo to be the starter next year, which runs counter to ongoing discussions among fans and analysts that all but assumes Garoppolo won’t return in 2021.
Most of Shanahan’s comments on Garoppolo centered around the quarterback’s potential return this season, but he started his answer with a clear-cut statement in favor of the current signal caller.
“I expect Jimmy to be our starter next year,” Shanahan said. “I expect him to come and play with us this year. We have six games left. We are not out of the playoffs yet. I’ve been on a team that was three and six going into a bye week and ended up winning their division. I think we have guys on this team capable of finishing this the right way. We’ve got to do one game at a time and I hope Jimmy can come back and be a part of that, but to think that we’ve made any decisions on somebody going into the future, this isn’t the case. Jimmy has won a lot of games for us this year. It’s a lot harder to win games when he’s not here and I’m just hoping we can get him back.”
Taking this at face value says San Francisco won’t go out and make any major changes under center this offseason. They could certainly still draft a QB.
Of course, Shanahan could’ve begun the statement with 2020 in mind. He believes the team has a better chance to win with Garoppolo starting, and giving some version of “we’re not making any decisions about next year’s roster” would’ve thrown gasoline on an already red-hot discussion and potentially derailed the team’s already fragile playoff hopes for this season.
This won’t be the last time Shanahan addresses the quarterback situation though. The 49ers can save $24.1 million against the cap next year by parting ways with Garoppolo in the offseason. As long as that fact remains about his contract, and his health and play are up-and-down, there’ll be questions for the head coach about the quarterback.
An intriguing story line to follow will be whether the head coach’s confidence in who the starter will be next season wanes once the team is out of the playoffs.
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