49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan on Thursday unveiled his plan for quarterback playing time in the team’s preseason opener against the Kansas City Chiefs.
“Jimmy (Garoppolo) will start out,” Shanahan said. “I mean with most of our starters, I know there’s a number of guys that aren’t playing to be safe with and some guys who’ve been banged up. We’re trying to get most of our starters going, Jimmy will be hopefully just one series and then I’ll get Trey (Lance) in there and hopefully just the whole first half.”
This is a good indication the club feels good about where Garoppolo is at. Although if he has a poor showing and goes three-and-out in his first series, they may put him back in for a second one to get some additional reps.
Getting in early doesn’t mean Lance will get reps with the starters though. Shanahan said the entire starting offense will come out of the game once Garoppolo’s night is done.
As far as Lance getting more work beyond the first half, Shanahan said it’ll all come down to how many reps the rookie gets.
“I mean it could be if he doesn’t get a certain amount of plays,” Shanahan said. “Hopefully he gets around 30 or something, but you never know how that will go. If he didn’t get enough plays, then I would start him probably the first series of third.”
In an ideal world Shanahan would likely prefer to give Josh Rosen and Nate Sudfeld the entire second half. However, the team needs to see Lance in action and if his handful of first-half series don’t amount to much, it makes a lot of sense to run him back out for part of the third quarter as well.
Perhaps the biggest question is which defense he’ll face from Kansas City. They could opt to leave starters in, which could make life exceedingly difficult for the rookie behind the second-team offensive line. On the other hand, if he plays well in that scenario, it could give the coaching staff some additional confidence in putting him up against starters once the games count.