49ers Shanahan reveals Garoppolo plan for exhibition season
SANTA CLARA — Jimmy Garoppolo will play in the 49ers exhibition season, just not in Saturday night’s opener against the Dallas Cowboys at Levi’s Stadium.
Instead, Garoppolo will suit up in the ensuing exhibitions, at Denver and Kansas City, for his game-like action since tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on Sept. 23, at Kansas City.
“I expect him to definitiely play (exhibitions) two and three, but nothing is mapped out and set in stone,” Shanahan said after Tuesday’s training camp practice.
Garoppolo has had a steady and impressive workload through nine practices, and it took until his 131st throw of full-team drills for any to result in an interception. That theft Tuesday came when Kendrick Bourne dropped a high pass and Ahkello Witherspoon scooped it up before it hit the ground for the “Immaculate Interception.”
So, is it a smart move to play your $137.5 million quarterback in a game that is meaningless other than to get him familiaried with full-speed opposition?
That is up for debate.
Some may argue it will desensitize him to that game-day scenario of a pass rush hellbent on hitting him, as opposed to the 49ers non-contact orders at practice.
Others may point to the case of Sam Bradford, who re-tore his ACL in the 2014 exhibition season with the then-St. Louis Rams.
Of the three starting quarterbacks coming off ACL tears last summer, the Philadelphia Eagles’ Carson Wentz was not cleared and did not play in the exhibition season, whereas the Houston Texans Deshaun Watson and Miami Dolphins’ Ryan Tannehill each played in their team’s first three exhibitions.
Garoppolo hasn’t said one way or the other if he needs the extra reps, but his practice habits suggest that he is trying to make up for lost time and get Shanahan’s offense in synch before the Sept. 8 opener at Tampa Bay.
Not all of his passes have been perfect, nor will they be in real games. But it’s the little things to watch for in the 49ers’ most vital comeback by a quarterback since, perhaps, the Joe Montana and Steve Young days.