San Francisco 49ers

San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan offered high praise for Jimmy Garoppolo heading into Sunday's game against the Denver Broncos.

Asked by a reporter if he's noticed anything different about Garoppolo after Friday's practice, Shanahan said the veteran quarterback is "one of the better throwers on this planet."

Garoppolo's ability as a player has always made him a divisive figure among fans and analysts. There are certainly aspects of his game that are easy to praise, including a quick release that allows him to avoid taking unnecessary hits.

One of the drawbacks to Garoppolo's style is it can be predictable. He lives in the middle of the field and will rarely target anything outside of the numbers.

One likely reason the 49ers traded up in the 2021 draft to select Trey Lance with the No. 3 overall pick is because he has the type of arm talent to take advantage of plays outside the numbers and deep down the field.

Even though there are limitations to what Garoppolo is capable of doing, the 49ers are certainly happy to have kept him in the wake of Lance's season-ending ankle injury suffered in the first quarter of their Week 2 win over the Seattle Seahawks.

If the 49ers had traded or released Garoppolo, as was expected for most of the offseason, it's hard to imagine a scenario in which they would have been able to contend for the playoffs without him knowing what we know now.

San Francisco has been incredibly successful with Garoppolo at quarterback. He is 31-14 in 45 career starts with the team since 2017. Shanahan has a 9-29 record in 38 games as 49ers head coach when Jimmy G doesn't start.

Garoppolo will be making his first start of the 2022 season in Week 3. He threw for 154 yards and accounted for two touchdowns in the 27-7 victory over the Seahawks last week.

Jimmy Garoppolo admitted to getting a rush of competitive adrenaline when he learned the San Francisco 49ers were going to move on to Trey Lance as their starting quarterback.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Garoppolo said the team's decision "lights a fire under you" as a competitor.

Even though a decision to have Lance take over as the starter in 2022 seemed apparent, there was a lot of speculation during the offseason because the 49ers didn't trade or release Garoppolo.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan confirmed the 49ers were "Trey's team" at the start of training camp in July.

There were complicating factors that made it difficult to trade Garoppolo during the offseason. He had shoulder surgery in March and wasn't fully cleared until July 26.

San Francisco didn't need to have a sense of urgency to move on from Garoppolo because his contract gave the team the ability to release him at any point before the Aug. 30 deadline to set 53-man rosters with just a $1.4 million dead cap hit.

When no trades materialized, the 49ers surprised most outside observers by restructuring Garoppolo's contract to bring him back as Lance's backup in 2022. He has a $6.5 million base salary with the possibility to earn up to $16 million in incentives based on playing time.

Lance's season came to an end in Week 2 when he suffered a fractured fibula and ligament disruption in the first quarter of the 49ers' 27-7 win over the Seattle Seahawks.

The 49ers have been incredibly successful with Garoppolo as their starting quarterback. The 30-year-old is 31-14 in 45 career starts with the team since 2017. He has led the Niners to the NFC Championship Game twice and an appearance in Super Bowl LIV after the 2019 season.

Even though Lance's injury complicates San Francisco's long-term future at quarterback, Garoppolo's comfortability in Shanahan's offense gives the team a chance to compete at a high level in 2022.

The San Francisco 49ers have signed veteran running back Marlon Mack to their active roster from the practice squad, his agents confirmed to ESPN's Adam Schefter on Tuesday.

The move comes as the Niners are without Elijah Mitchell and Tyrion Davis-Price due to injury.

The 49ers initially signed Mack to their practice squad on Sept. 12.

San Francisco lost Mitchell to a knee injury in a 19-10 loss to the Chicago Bears in Week 1 and he is expected to miss two months.

Davis-Price, selected by the 49ers in the third round of the 2022 NFL draft out of LSU, is expected to be sidelined for multiple weeks with a high ankle sprain suffered in San Francisco's Week 2 win over the Seattle Seahawks.

The injuries left the 49ers with Jeff Wilson Jr. and Jordan Mason on the depth chart.

Wilson is expected to serve as the team's top running back moving forward. He has 27 carries for 106 yards through two games and four catches for 27 yards.

Mason, meanwhile, has appeared in San Francisco's first two games on special teams and hasn't seen any time in the backfield.

Mack, 26, spent the first five seasons of his career with the Indianapolis Colts. His best season with the franchise came in 2019 when he rushed for 1,091 yards and eight touchdowns in 14 games.

The 26-year-old appeared in just one game for the Colts in 2020 after suffering a torn Achilles. He returned in 2021 but appeared in just six games and fell out of favor in Indianapolis with the rise of Jonathan Taylor and Nyheim Hines.

Now with the injuries to Mitchell and Davis-Price, Mack has a chance to prove he belongs on an NFL roster again, and it's a safe bet that he'll see some solid playing time against the Denver Broncos in Week 3.

The Washington Commanders were reportedly favorites to trade for Jimmy Garoppolo this offseason before he underwent shoulder surgery.

Tim Keown and Nick Wagoner of ESPN reported the Commanders were "poised" to trade for Garoppolo until testing revealed the quarterback's shoulder was not healing as hoped. Doctors recommended surgery, and the Commanders moved on to trade for Carson Wentz.

Garoppolo spent his offseason rehabbing rather than getting acclimated to a new team, while every franchise looking for a new quarterback went elsewhere to find their answer.

In the end, Garoppolo languished on the sidelines throughout training camp, throwing on the side and hoping a deal would surface. General manager John Lynch said there were no serious trade discussions during camp, with teams seemingly hoping the 49ers would simply release the veteran quarterback.

"That's why we were a little at a loss," Lynch said. "Because you can talk to his doctor, you can talk to our doctor, you can talk to a lot of people and he was doing well."

The 49ers ultimately wound up agreeing to restructure Garoppolo's contract at the end of the preseason, locking him in as a backup to Trey Lance—a move that ultimately proved fortuitous over the weekend.

Lance's season-ending ankle injury re-opened the door for Garoppolo, who will now have the rest of 2022 to prove himself both healthy and capable. Garoppolo's new deal included no-trade and no-tag clauses, meaning he will be an unrestricted free agent in March, barring the unlikely scenario of the 49ers deciding to cut bait on Lance and move forward with Garoppolo as the franchise quarterback.

The Commanders, for now, appear comfortable with their decision. Wentz has looked solid through the first two regular-season games, leading Washington to a 1-1 record.

The 49ers, meanwhile, are thankful the Commanders didn't roll the dice on Garoppolo's shoulder.

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Trey Lance will be ready to take the field in 2023 after undergoing surgery to repair multiple ankle injuries he suffered on Sunday.

The team released a statement Monday saying he underwent successful surgery:

Lance was carted off the field with an air cast on his leg during Sunday's game against the Seattle Seahawks in a disappointing development for someone trying to establish himself as his team's franchise quarterback.

ESPN's Adam Schefter reported it was a "significant ankle injury today that is expected to require surgery that likely will end his season."

The 49ers gave the keys of the offense to Lance to start the 2022 campaign after he backed up Jimmy Garoppolo for much of his rookie season in 2021. Yet he struggled in a Week 1 loss to the Chicago Bears while going just 13-of-28 passing for 164 yards, zero touchdowns and one interception in a rain-soaked game.

It was rather shocking that San Francisco decided to keep Garoppolo this offseason when it was widely assumed he would be moved after the team went toward Lance, but that decision is now all the more important.

Garoppolo is a veteran game-manager who has proven capable of winning under center for San Francisco. He entered the 2022 season with a 33-14 career record as a starter and helped lead the 49ers to the NFC Championship Game last season and the Super Bowl during the 2019 campaign.

The hope for the 49ers now is that he can continue that pattern of winning in place of Lance.

When Jimmy Garoppolo restructured his deal with the San Francisco 49ers in late August, it included bonuses that could increase his earnings from a base salary of $6.5 million to a total of $16 million.

On Monday, ESPN's Field Yates offered more details on the specifics of some of his potential bonus payouts:

According to Spotrac, Garoppolo also has a $500,000 bonus for playoff games where he takes at least 50 percent of the snaps, an additional $500,000 bonus if he takes 50 percent of the snaps in the NFC Championship Game, another $500,000 bonus if the Niners win that game and a $1 million bonus if the team wins the Super Bowl and he plays 50 percent of the snaps.

His reworked deal additionally includes a full no-trade clause—which essentially is a moot point after Trey Lance was lost for the season on Sunday with an ankle injury, ensuring Garoppolo would be the team's starter the rest of the way—and a no-tag clause for the 2023 offseason.

Garoppolo, who wasn't present for practices or meetings during training camp and also didn't throw for much of the offseason as he recovered from surgery on his right shoulder, said stepping back into the starting position wasn't a huge adjustment.

"It was more just about getting the shoulder ready," he told reporters. "Mentally, I knew the scheme. Some of the new plays took a little while to learn, there's always some new wrinkles in the offense, but for the most part it was just, 'Once my shoulder was good, I was ready to roll.'"

He finished 13-for-21 for 154 yards and a touchdown after replacing Lance in the first quarter of San Francisco's 27-7 win over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, adding a rushing score.

It was just two games into Lance's first season as the starter after the Niners bumped him to the top of the depth chart this offseason and initially sought trade offers for Garoppolo before agreeing with him on a reworked deal.

"It felt good to be back out there," Garoppolo said. "I felt terrible for Trey. I've been on that side in this league. It's tough. Every person has their share of injuries. But that sucks for him and I feel bad for him, but he's our brother and we'll pick him up."

As Trey Lance was being carted off the field during Sunday's win over the Seattle Seahawks, all San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan could do was apologize.

“I’m sorry. You were playing your ass off," Shanahan said, per Peter King of NBC Sports.

Lance suffered a broken ankle on a designed run late in the first quarter of the 49ers' 27-7 victory over the division rival Seahawks and will miss the remainder of the 2022 season.

It was a heartbreaking end to a season that never really got underway for Lance, the 49ers' 2021 first-round pick. The second-year quarterback struggled in a season-opening loss to the Chicago Bears, but that could largely be attributed to inclement weather and sloppy field conditions at Soldier Field.

The 49ers' offense was crisp from the outset Sunday, kicking a field goal on their opening possession and driving deep into Seahawks territory when Lance went down. San Francisco kicked a second field goal after Jimmy Garoppolo replaced Lance on that drive.

Garoppolo finished with 154 yards passing and a touchdown and will be the starting quarterback for the remainder of the season.

“Four of our six years here we’ve lost the starting quarterback to injury,” Shanahan said. “I mean, you just deal with it. You’ve got to. Our team really loves Trey. But these guys, they plan on winning games regardless of the obstacles.

“We’ll be somber Monday morning, but this league doesn’t wait for anybody. It’s unbelievable, really, what’s happened here. We’ve only played two years without a major quarterback injury. But really, this is the first time we’ve had a really good Plan B. It’s a long time since this franchise had a quarterback situation like this one, with two guys we know can win—probably back to Joe Montana and Steve Young. I’m not comparing these guys to Joe and Steve, but I’m talking about going into games now knowing we’ve still got a great chance.”

Garoppolo spent most of the offseason expecting to be playing football elsewhere after the 49ers handed the keys to the offense over to Lance. Instead, he'll be tasked with saving the season amid the young quarterback's uncertain future.

The San Francisco 49ers now need Jimmy Garoppolo, but the quarterback didn't expect to remain with the team this season.

Garoppolo discussed the turn of events with Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated:

I mean, honestly, at one point, I didn't think I was going to be a Niner. I was pretty set on going to a couple different teams I had in mind. And then all of a sudden things switched [at the] last second. There was a lot of familiarity with the organization, the offense, teammates, all that stuff played a role. It was just a good opportunity. I know we got a good team here and I know everyone keeps saying this, but we've got a chance at a Super Bowl and that's what I'm trying to do.

Though Garoppolo had started 45 games over the past five years in San Francisco, second-year No. 3 overall pick Trey Lance was named the starting quarterback this offseason with Garoppolo squarely on the trade block. After months of rumors, the 49ers decided to bring the 30-year-old back on a restructured contract.

It was a significant change considering Garoppolo reportedly didn't even have a playbook or practice with the team in training camp, per Peter King of NBC Sports.

Lance likely suffered a season-ending ankle injury in Sunday's game, per ESPN's Adam Schefter. Garoppolo took over and totaled two touchdowns in the eventual 27-7 win over the Seattle Seahawks.

After a wild offseason, the veteran is back where he started last year and looking to help the 49ers compete for a title.