Shanahan: 'This is Trey's team'; Jimmy Garoppolo reports to 49ers training camp
SANTA CLARA (CBS SF/AP) -- Just minutes into his training camp opening press conference, head coach Mike Shanahan left little doubt once again who will be his starting quarterback.
While he thanked veteran Jimmy Garoppolo for helping get the team to last year's NFC Championship Game, the present and future is in the hands of former top draft pick Trey Lance.
"Jimmy did a hell of a job coming to camp (last season) and winning the job and taking us real close to the Super Bowl, but we have moved on to Trey," Shanahan told reporters. "We are starting camp out this way. We think Jimmy would have been traded (in the off -season) had the surgery (in his shoulder) hadn't happened."
Garoppolo met with his personal physician on Tuesday morning before his repaired shoulder was checked out by the 49ers training staff.
He also met with Shanahan and GM John Lynch.
"We had a good meeting with Jimmy this morning, Kyle and myself," Lynch told reporters. "And we had a really good discussion and the good news is he's feeling great and doing a nice job with his throwing program, the ramp up part of that. And that's exciting to hear."
"It's good to see that he is healthy," Shanahan added. "It's now just seeing how this all ends up. All three of us are on the same page. We'll always think about Jimmy, but he knows we have a team to think about too...In the mean time, he's cleared to practice."
The process of transitioning from Garoppolo to Lance as starter in San Francisco started last offseason when the Niners traded three first-round picks to move up to take Lance third overall.
But after having only limited college experience at lower-level North Dakota State, the 49ers were in no rush to turn the team over to Lance, believing that a healthy Garoppolo gave them the best chance to compete.
That mostly proved correct as San Francisco made it to the NFC title game with Garoppolo at quarterback before losing to the eventual champion Rams.
Lance played only sparingly, making two starts when Garoppolo got injured, but showed enough in practice and the offseason for Shanahan to be confident in his ability to run a team that has championship aspirations.
"This is Trey's team and that's nothing against Jimmy, we made that decision a year ago and we're going with that and we're not going to mess around with that anymore," Shanahan said. "And I don't think we really have messed around with that much, but once we made that decision, we did. And Jimmy understands that fully. He's a big guy and it's nothing against him, either. That's a business decision and that's what makes it not awkward. "
The Niners would have already moved on from Garoppolo if he had been healthy this offseason. But he needed shoulder surgery, complicating efforts to trade him.
Garoppolo stayed in Southern California for the offseason program but has been cleared to practice, eliminating a $7.5 million injury guarantee on his $24.2 million contract for 2022.
Whether the Niners can find a trade partner remains to be seen and they might end up releasing him to save that money on the cap. Shanahan said Garoppolo won't take part in team drills and will work on the side building up strength in his shoulder.
That will put the focus on Lance, who completed 41 of 71 passes for 603 yards, five TDs and two interceptions, while also running for 168 yards and a score as a rookie last season.
Lance's teammates believe in his ability and are happy any controversy over the starter has been put to rest before the first practice on Wednesday.
"It's nice that Kyle came out and finally said it publicly, but I felt like we all kind of felt that and saw that in OTAs," fullback Kyle Juszczyk said. "It's not too much of a shocker or anything, but definitely excited for Trey and excited for us."
Shanahan was also optimistic a contract extension can be reached with disgruntled star Deebo Samuel.
"I had a real good discussion with him," the 49ers coach told reporters. "We're on the exact same page on it."
