49ers General Manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan have been consistent in saying they expect Jimmy Garoppolo to be San Francisco’s starting quarterback in 2021. But there’s a long, long time between now and Week 1, so anything could happen.
The 49ers have the No. 12 overall pick in the upcoming spring draft. That’s too low to select someone like Trevor Lawrence or Justin Fields. But there are plenty of other potential candidates.
Still, Lynch said this week in an interview with Tim Kawakami of TheAthletic.com for “The TK Show” podcast that he doesn’t see that happening at this point.
“We certainly could [select a QB], I don’t anticipate that right now, but we’re so early in the process, we’ll do what’s best for this team,” Lynch said, via NBC Sports Bay Area. “I do wanna make it clear, and I think Kyle and I have been fairly transparent since we’ve been here, we have a lot of belief in Jimmy Garoppolo. Where does that come from? It comes from the sample that we have, and when he’s been out there, we’ve been better. We’ve been successful.
“In addition to that, his teammates understand that. I’ve always believed leaders not only play at a high level, but they also make everyone else around them better. He’s had that quality on our team, I think he’s a good fit for what we do system-wise. Are there some areas he can improve on, sure, and we’ll always challenge him to do that. But we have liked working with him, and we’re excited to have him back.”
After leading the 49ers to a conference championship in 2019, Garoppolo played only six games in 2020. He completed 67.1 percent of his passes for 1,096 yards with seven touchdowns and five interceptions.