© Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
The 2019 NFL season is fast approaching, and the excitement surrounding the San Francisco 49ers is building once again. With a healthy Jimmy Garoppolo and Kyle Shanahan’s arsenal of weapons on offense, the 49ers quarterback is ready for his first full, healthy season under the team’s head coach.
Thursday afternoon, Garoppolo joined Fitz & Brooks to discuss the upcoming season and his recovery from a torn ACL in 2018. Garoppolo talked about why he enjoys playing for Shanahan and his creativity on offense.
“Yeah it makes my job a heck of a lot easier, that’s for sure,” Garoppolo said. “That was one of the cool things about being on the sideline this year, he’s setting guys up and they don’t even know it.”
Shanahan is notorious for his play calling, which is known to be very creative and complex. Despite suffering a season-ending injury last season, Garoppolo was still able to learn and participate in film activities with the rest of the team.
“From the outside perspective it might be hard to appreciate while watching the game on TV, but when you get into the film study and when you’re talking football with him and ‘hey what were you thinking on this?’ and everything, he’s really a mastermind of breaking it down and being able to teach it to you. He’s so good at that with me, and I really appreciate him for that.”
Garoppolo’s absence was certainly felt on the field, but behind closed doors, the injured quarterback was very much a part of team activities.
“I was still in all of the meetings, all of the film sessions, game-planning things. I would travel for the away games and I was on the field as soon as they’d allow me to be. It really allowed me to see the game from a coach’s perspective, I would have the play call sheet in my hand, just like Kyle. We’d get in these third-down situations or red zone situations and I’d almost try and call the game as if I was the play caller.”
Despite the team’s struggles after Garoppolo went down, some 49ers thrived with more experience in Shanahan’s system. With Garoppolo expected to be ready for training camp, breakout seasons in 2018 from certain players on offense has the quarterback excited for what’s in store for this season.
“Yeah no doubt, it was very encouraging from the sideline. You try and be a part of it the same way you normally are, but there’s something missing, you’re not in the huddle. George (Kittle) his numbers speak for themselves, he had a monster year, but also young guys like Dante (Pettis), (Matt) Bredia, Marquise (Goodwin) had a good year, a lot of encouraging things going into this year.”
Garoppolo and the 49ers are wrapping up their second week of OTA practices this week. With the season just under 100 days away, Garoppolo and the 49ers are eager to get back to full health in preparation for what could be a big 2019 season.
Listen to the full interview with Garoppolo here: