Kyle Shanahan made news in a pre-draft press conference when he offered a grim answer to a question about Jimmy Garoppolo’s status with the club.
Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle asked Shanahan if he would commit to Garoppolo being on the roster after the NFL draft. Shanahan gave a rather dark response.
”I can’t guarantee that anybody in the world will be alive Sunday,” Shanahan said. “So I can’t guarantee who will be on our roster on Sunday. So, that goes for all of us.”
He walked back the intensity of that remark and explained Thursday after Day 1 of the NFL draft why he went that route.
“I totally bombed that on Monday. I hated how that came off. I talked to Jimmy about it right away,” Shanahan said. “I didn’t realize that when I did it. A person I have a relationship with who sometimes when he asks me what I think is a silly question, sometimes I mess with him back and that’s kind of what I was doing. That was between me and that guy, had nothing to do with Jimmy when I said, ‘I didn’t know if we’d be alive on Sunday.’ I was just trying not to get my typical answer of, ‘Guys, anybody can be traded if you get a bunch of ones, John should trade me and I shouldn’t be here on Sunday.'”
Branch is widely known on the 49ers beat as a humorous person, and even prior to that answer Shanahan had a laugh with Branch about the length of his question.
It turns out it was just a failed attempt at a light-hearted exchange with a beat reporter and not a poorly-veiled attempt at hiding the truth.
The 49ers didn’t trade Garoppolo on Day 1 of the draft, and they picked a quarterback in Trey Lance who could benefit from Garoppolo sticking around as the starter. It doesn’t appear they’re poised to move on from their starter at any point during the three-day event either.
Shanahan may not have come across the way he wanted, but it’s good to know the exchange was an attempt at a joke and not a deeper insight into Shanahan’s view on the fleeting nature of existence.
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