Kyle Shanahan responds to Jimmy Garoppolo’s ‘weird’ claim
Oct 3, 2021; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan walks on the field before the game against the Seattle Seahawks at Levi’s Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports
Jimmy Garoppolo took a swipe at the San Francisco 49ers this week over how they have handled their quarterback situation in recent years, and the media managed to get a response out of head coach Kyle Shanahan.
Garoppolo, who is now with the Las Vegas Raiders, was asked in a recent interview for his thoughts on the Niners trading former No. 3 overall pick Trey Lance to the Dallas Cowboys. He described the move as “weird” but said there have been “a lot of weird situations” in San Francisco.
Shanahan disagrees with that assessment. At the very least, he would use a different adjective to describe how things unfolded with Lance.
“I think anytime you trade up to the third pick in the draft and it doesn’t work out, that’s a weird situation,” Shanahan said. “But that is the situation. That’s what happened. I don’t think it’s that weird. It’s unusual if that doesn’t work out, but I wouldn’t think that’s weird. I think it’s unusual.”
Shanahan also provided his condensed version of how things played out with Garoppolo in San Francisco. It seemed like the coach’s message was that Garoppolo has nothing to be bitter about.
“When we got here we waited 10 weeks and made a trade for a quarterback who played five games and we made him the highest-paid quarterback of all time, at the time,” Shanahan said of Garoppolo. “Then he played two of the next five years and did really good in those two years. His injuries for three of those five years were legit. It was rough on him and rough on us. Then we made a move to go to a younger quarterback, and that’s what we did. We thought he’d be ready in two years and he wasn’t. Now we have a different younger quarterback. That’s the situation.”
You can hear the full comments below:
Kyle Shanahan fires back at Jimmy Garoppolo. pic.twitter.com/ufCiWvmRXS
— Grant Cohn (@grantcohn) August 30, 2023
The 49ers have certainly had bad injury luck at the quarterback position over the last few years. Brock Purdy was only inserted into the lineup last season following injuries to both Lance and Garoppolo. Purdy then got hurt in the NFC Championship Game, which left San Francisco with a crazy QB plan in place had they reached the Super Bowl.
If Garoppolo is unhappy with the Niners, it is probably because they brought him back as a backup to Lance last season rather than trading or releasing him. Shanahan and company were doing what they felt was best for the team at the time, but you can see why that may have frustrated Garoppolo.