Jimmy Garoppolo to start against Chicago

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (10) is sacked by Indianapolis Colts defensive tackle DeForest Buckner (99), defensive end Kemoko Turay (57) and defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad (97) during an NFL football game, Saturday, October. 24, 2021, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Scot Tucker)

Jimmy Garoppolo will start for the 49ers when they travel to play the Chicago Bears on Sunday.

Kyle Shanahan made that announcement during a conference call with Bay Area media Monday afternoon.
Garoppolo had his worst performance of the season in Sunday night’s 30-18 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, completing less than 60% of his passes.

The issues that have plagued the 49ers offense throughout their current four-game losing streak extend well beyond the quarterback position.

Against Indianapolis the 49ers running game gained 72 yards on their first seven attempts. After that hot start the running game  disappeared and the team gained only 39 yards on their final 17 attempts of the game.


With the run game shut down, it was up to Garoppolo and the passing game to make enough plays to secure the victory.


Starting with the final play of the first quarter through halftime, the 49ers’ passing game faltered in a number of ways: a running back fell down while running a route up the left sidelines, a right guard got beat on third down, forcing an incomplete throw on top of a dropped screen pass and a couple of inaccurate throws.

When Garoppolo finally connected with Deebo Samuel late in the second quarter, the wide receiver fumbled the ball. Indianapolis scored the go-ahead touchdown a few plays later and never relinquished the lead.


Don’t expect to see Trey Lance take over the starting job any time soon. For starters, the first-round pick is currently working his way back from what Shanahan termed as a significant injury. The 49ers hope to have Lance available for practice on Wednesday, and if everything goes as planned, he will be active on Sunday for a few plays if needed.


Despite their 2-4 record, San Francisco still has a pulse in the NFC playoff race. Expect  Garoppolo to remain the starting quarterback until the 49ers’ playoff hopes have been eliminated.


In other news, safety Jaquiski Tartt will be out for a few weeks after suffering a knee bruise against the Colts.
Trent Williams remains day to day. The left tackle was unable to play against Indianapolis due to an ankle injury that didn’t heal up as quickly as anticipated.


The team also hopes to find a resolution regarding Javon Kinlaw’s status. The defensive tackle has been dealing with a knee injury suffered in a game against Dallas last season and may end up on the injured reserve.


Dee Ford and Azeez Al-Shaair have entered the NFL concussion protocol. Both players sustained injuries on Sunday.


The 49ers also announced that DL Jordan Willis has been activated from the Reserve/Suspended List and will be granted a one-week roster exemption. The team also signed S Tony Jefferson to the team’s practice squad.

This article has 29 Comments

  1. Kyle is an unmitigated embarrassment of a Head Coach! I can’t even listen to his senseless postgame rambling any more. The least he could do is fake like he cares about getting to the bottom of the issues in order to make these much needed changes.

    Things are obviously needing to get much worse before Kyle is willing to even acknowledge his team’s shortcomings, let alone being willing to make those necessary changes!

    Talk about Whistling Past The Graveyard!

      1. Collin Cowherd said Kyle coached scared, 49ers don’t win, they are the 4th best team in their own division – The 49ers franchise is the 4th out of 4 teams in the NFC West.

        ROCK BOTTOM!

  2. So Kyle’s stupidity in the last game got Lance injured for much longer than he initially said. I’m shocked, shocked that he would be less than honest about the severity of the injury. Now we are in a season where the team isn’t going to win games, nor will it develop the young players they have drafted. This has really become a train wreck worse than I expected. I thought this team could be anywhere from a Super Bowl team to 6-11. At this point 6-11 seems optimistic.

    Tartt missing games is as reliable as the sun setting in the west. Another player it is past time to move on from. I have to wonder if Ward & Tartt have some kind of record for longest time playing together while generating the fewest turnovers in NFL history?

    1. Yes if there’s anything I’m most perturbed about it’s essentially that- he ran Lance into the teeth of the defense over and over again. You could see Lance was taking some tough hits that would sideline any other QB. No regard for the QB’s health or future.

      Then lied about the nature of the injury. 🤥

      Then the press gave him a free pass on this b.s.

      1. How do you know he lied. Seems like a pretty severe statement unless you have proof. Since you didn’t mention any, I suppose you don’t have any.

        1. October 11th, he said this:

          “It’s not a long-term injury…We should have a good idea by the end of next week, whether he’s got a chance for Indy or not. If he doesn’t, they told me it should be like a one to two week thing, but possibly just one.”

          Then he said this:

          “Trey’s coming off a pretty big injury and we’re gonna keep bringing him along and keep getting him prepared as good as you can be to always be ready to come in and help on the plays that we ask him to do.”

          Which is it? A BIG injury that’s only 1-2 weeks?

          Source: https://www.ninersnation.com/platform/amp/2021/10/26/22746026/49ers-news-kyle-shanahan-comments-on-jimmy-garoppolo-trey-lance-dont-add-up

      2. that- he ran Lance into the teeth of the defense over and over again

        Has any coach in the NFL history have done this to his 1st round QB pick that he traded 2 1st rd and a 3rd to get on his first game? Any of those hits could have seriously injured the kid! That action alone should get any coaches fired after the game.

  3. Courtesy of our longtime friend Grant Cohn:

    Winning percentage as an NFL head coach.

    Mike Singletary: .450
    Chip Kelly: .444
    Kyle Shanahan: .443

    1. This is not an attempt to suggest Shanahan is a good coach despite the record, however, I do think it is funny that after 2017 and 2018 pretty much everyone agreed those two seasons were pretty much meaningless in terms of Shanahan’s coaching record given where the team came from, but now I see them being used a lot to show how bad a coach he is.

      21-17 record the past three seasons during the regular season, 2-1 in post season. Still not good by the way, but I think that is a much fairer basis for assessment.

      1. Scooter: You’re comparison is fair, but it’s not just about KS’ record as it currently stands. Can you really say you feel confident that they will beat the Bears this weekend? Has the organization/team given us any reason to expect improvement after weeks of bumbling performances. I think this is what it really boils down to.

        1. They are favorites to win the game by the people who have money on the line. I wouldn’t be confident with most teams winning against most other teams. It seams like that kind of year. I didn’t see the coach out on the field for even one play yet, some people only complain about the coach. He’s the coach, not god. It’s easy to say he’s responsible for everything but so is every other coach and by those standards most coaches should be fired. When all you can propose is firing someone, without proposing solutions you bound to be unhappy most of the time.

  4. Well, [Garoppolo’s] not [playing well] right now,” Staley continued. “They’re a 2-4 football team, and I don’t know if they have a direction or even a chance, as it stands right now, to be that playoff team. So, for me, it’s like, if this the point of the season where you say, ‘Alright, we already made our choice that Trey’s going to be the future of this franchise. We wanted to use it as a red-shirt year for him,’ and I don’t know if that’s going to be the best case right now because there’s not a spark on offense. There’s not even consistency.

    “From my point of view, I think they have to think long and hard about just going to Trey, using it, taking the lumps, knowing that he’s going to be the future of this team. You take the lumps right now, as opposed to someone who is eventually going to be gone, and then that way, you’re building towards the future. And then when you get to 2022, it’s not just starting over from scratch and then taking those lumps as they come.”

    1. Yeah, Thanks for the Staley quote. He is so right. Play the other rookies too. It’s common sense. But is Shanahan capable of that? It would be throwing in the towel for the world to see. An admission your current roster can’t compete. That’s on him. A mighty blow to his reputation. What an embarrassment! This is a lesson in what can happen when you’re in over your head and on center stage.

    2. Keeping Garoppolo breaks down like this: Best case he gets lucky and repeats 2019 and a return to the playoffs. Next best – he plays well enough to raise his trade value. And worst case – well, we’re pretty much seeing that right now. IMHO the cap situation pretty much dictated that we were stuck with Jimmy. Given that that was so, one has to ask why Trey Lance was such a generational talent to give up so much to obtain. I don’t see it. The Niners threw good money after bad and I say the good money should have gone towards other areas of need. Jimmy G gives an aura of confidence and unflappability. But one has to wonder what the impact of his being a lame duck QB playing for another move to another team has to be on his availability and his performance.

      1. I get why people want to start Lance and maybe it’s the right decision although I’ll trust Shanahan on this one, since he has the most information and the most reason for wanting to win. Also, by going to Lance now, he’s telling the rest of the team that he doesn’t believe they can win. I think that destroys morale. As Lynch often says, we’ll know when we know which in my mind means when the majority of players and coaches know it’s time.

  5. Earlier in the year I thought Kyle had a good thing going. Give Jimmy a chance to increase his trade value in the early season with a few easy wins, then trade him just before the deadline, go with Lance the rest of the way and into the future. I also expected a intelligent, dynamic game plan for Trey. How naive. It seems like Kyle can dream up about one sequence per game that catches the other team, then he looses his clipboard, can’t adjust and that’s it! Watching our new guy Trey get run into the line over and over was hard to watch!
    I was so jazzed to get Kyle but after this I don’t know. He comes up with some good stuff but their scouting, John and Kyle are abysmal judges of talent. Arik Armstead over Defo! Ruben Foster (can’t even make it through the combine!!) Soloman, Joe Williams, Mc Glinchey, Jalen Hurd, Jerrick Mc Kinnon etc.
    Start by drafting people who can survive a football game ! Also where are all our EARLY ROUND choices, Aaron Banks, Ambry Thomas, Brandon Aiyuk, Trey Sermon, Demo etc. I’m sure Kyle knows a million times more about football than me, but when I watched Mahomes or Josh Allen in college I could see it right away, and I’ll bet you could too !

  6. Are there any specific offensive plays that you would like to see broken down from the Colts game?

    1. Not a specific play per se but I’m very curious if the 49ers are doing anything at all to stretch the field. Seems pretty obvious opposing defenses are sitting on the short and intermediate routes. The Colts game might not be a great barometer because of the weather but I’m curious who is the downfield threat? Which receiver is running deep and requiring double coverage. Who is that player on the 49ers right now? If the 49ers don’t start stretching the field more then the offense is dead in the water.

      Also, very curious on the OL grades. How did Moore hold up? Is he a legitimate option if McGlinchey doesn’t start playing better. What about Mack and Brunskil? How did they grade out? Could Moore slide in at RG. From what my untrained eye could see, Brunskil got treated like the fat kid at summer camp.

      1. Notice since the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl, teams just shut down the intermediate routes over the middle?

        For Jimmy to have any success he has to leave the pocket now, mainly because he never had the arm strength to throw out routes.

        They’ve effectively shut Jimmy down by forcing him to make all throws to the sidelines.

    2. Not an answer to your question, but here’s a stat that I think will interest you (although you’re probably aware of this statistic since you are big on stats):

      “The 49ers are just 6 for their last 36 on third downs in their last three games. They are 30th in third-down conversion rate on the season, with only the Jaguars and the Bears being worse. So far this year, the team has converted just 31.4% of all their third-down opportunities. For context, in 2019, the 49ers were 5th best in the league at 45%. Just to twist the knife a little bit more, in 2020 (even with all those injuries), the 49ers converted 39.1% of their third downs, which was 23rd in the league. In case you aren’t following- the team did better on the most important down of the possession last year with Nick Mullens and a bag of cats than they are in 2021 with the starting quarterback, starting offensive line (save for one game), and starting wide receivers all healthy and playing.”

      This stat kind of dulls the injury excuse, imo. I guess it’s just player execution because we all know that KS is one of the best HCs in the league (yes, that is sarcasm).

      https://www.ninersnation.com/2021/10/26/22747382/49ers-news-one-stat-that-explains-why-kyle-shanahans-offense-has-stalled-in-2021

      1. I’d also like more information on this subject. It’s extremely concerning. I wonder what the average yards needed are on these 3rd downs. What’s causing this? Is it that we aren’t doing all that well on 1st and 2nd? I noted that Shanahan said in the press conference that on their 2 TDs that they never had a 3 rd down.

        1. Jerry:

          Did you check out the chart that was included in the link. I’ve seen it posted somewhere else before. Look at the huge difference between Jimmy G. and RW. I was a huge Jimmy G fan after he arrived in 2017 (even bought his jersey), but something went totally off the rails. Jimmy is definitely done as a 49er.

          Further, although I blame KS for some of the problems, it’s also true that one would be hard pressed to find a successful coach who doesn’t have a top-level QB.

          1. Yes it lists a number of potential reasons and it’s probably all of them. I was a big Jimmy fan also and considered him the best QB since Garcia and maybe he still is. However, his propensity to get injured has really hurt the team and was a major reason to draft Lance. He hasn’t played as well this year as in previous years. (Not just him but some others on the team) I hope that he and the rest of the team will play better the rest of the year, make the playoffs and give Lance a chance to learn and develop for next year.

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