During the press conference to open training camp, San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan stated that Jimmy Garoppolo was the starting quarterback. Before practice Wednesday, Shanahan was again asked if Garoppolo was the starting quarterback for the team’s season opener Sunday at Detroit, Shanahan pointed back to his opening comments.
The non-answer finally put an end to the question that has been on the top of everyone’s mind.
Other news and notes from today’s practice:
-Kyle Shanahan announced Fred Warner, Jimmy Garoppolo, George Kittle, Jimmie Ward, Trent Williams, Arik Armstead and Raheem Mostert will serve as team captains for the 2021 season.
-Kevin Givens (hip), Jalen Hurd (knee), Javon Kinlaw (knee), and Emmanuel Moseley (knee), were held out of practice and Trey Lance (finger) was limited in practice.
-The team hopes that Moseley will be able to play on Sunday. If he is unable to go the 49ers will likely turn to either Deommodore Lenoir or Josh Norman to start.
-While listed as limited, Trey Lance was able to throw a football in practice for the first time since injuring the index finger on his throwing hand 10 day ago in the final preseason game against the Las Vegas Raiders. He should be available to play Sunday.
-There is a possibility that Hurd, who has been hampered by knee tendinitis, will be moved over to injured reserve to provide more time for his knee to fully heal. Fortunately for San Francisco, Hurd is near the bottom of the depth chart. Plus, they have Travis Benjamin and River Cracraft on the practice squad who were with the team during training camp.
-Kyle Shanahan stated that Nick Bosa and Dee Ford would not be on pitch counts against Detroit. During the preseason, the coaching staff will often dictate the number of snaps. Now that the regular season is here, their snap totals will depend on how often the various personnel packages they are part of need to be on the field.
-The team announced they have signed LB Nate Gerry to the practice squad and released OL Corbin Kaufusi.
Aaaaaaand Dontae Johnson was signed to the practice squad. Look for him to be brought up after Hurd goes to IR yet again. Uggh.
Good call
Everyone? Not here.
Despite all the breathless “it’s possible for a rookie led team to win a SB” and “Trey is improving every day” observations he showed in the preseason there was nothing contrary to Shannies original statement. Trey has has tons of raw talent, emphasis on raw. How many collegiate games did he play? And in what division? The team will bring him along as they need to, the notion of day one starter was a just that. A ridiculous notion.
Pretty much everyone in the media except perhaps David Lombardi peddled this nonsense that there was a decent chance of Trey starting…..
Barring injury was there ever any doubt Garoppolo would start week 1? I mean all the reading between the lines by the media types never really amounted to anything. Kyle said from the beginning Jimmy G would be the starter. If there was any doubt created by cryptic or less than definitive responses by Kyle or John Lynch then many (most) people I believe took that as the 49ers trying to get a bit of a competitive advantage by forcing the Lions to prepare for 2 different QBs and 2 different styles of offense. I would have been floored if Kyle Shanahan announced Trey Lance as the starter even if Lance looked like Joe Montana in the preseason (which he didn’t). With this roster, starting Trey Lance to “give him experience” would have been a disservice to a very stacked team that should have playoff aspirations.
I know that a lot of media people are predicting when lance will start but I don’t believe it will be this year unless jimmy gets injured. I think lance will get some snaps in most games to get experience and keep him sharp but to start he would have to prove that he is consistently better than Jimmy. Maybe he can do that. We’ll see.