Kyle Shanahan Clears Up His Comments On Jimmy Garoppolo Being Alive Sunday

When the Niners trading up to the #3 overall pick in Thursday night’s NFL Draft, everyone knew the team was looking to replace Jimmy Garoppolo as their quarterback. So of course, head coach Kyle Shanahan was bombarded with Jimmy G questions all throughout last week.

At one point, Shanahan was asked if he could commit to Jimmy being on the team come Sunday. He responded by saying that he couldn’t commit to anyone being on the team, because he couldn’t even say for sure that anyone would be alive come Sunday. That response got quite the reaction on social media, and even tight end George Kittle had to make a joke.

[sportsbookaffiliates]

After the Niners drafted quarterback Trey Lance in the first round of the NFL Draft (and didn’t trade Garoppolo), Shanahan admitted that he was wrong for making that comment about people being alive.

“First of all, I’m glad you asked about Jimmy. I totally bombed that on Monday,” Kyle Shanahan said, via ProFootballTalk. “I hated how that came off. I talked to Jimmy about it right away. I didn’t realize that when I did it. A person I have a relationship with who sometimes when he asks me what I think is a silly question, sometimes I mess with him back, and that’s kind of what I was doing. That was between me and that guy, had nothing to do with Jimmy when I said, I didn’t know if we’d be alive on Sunday. I was just trying not to get my typical answer of, ‘Guys, anybody can be traded if you get a bunch of ones, John should trade me, and I shouldn’t be here on Sunday.’”

Kyle Shanahan would go on to say that he hopes Jimmy Garoppolo is his quarterback next season, and that they can bring Trey Lance along slowly.

“That’s the answer for every person on our team, but Jimmy’s situation is, if he isn’t here on Sunday, I would be disappointed because Jimmy is a quarterback who’s played one year and took us to a Super Bowl and played at a very high level. He’s had some unfortunate injuries, but I believe in Jimmy as a person and he’s shown what he can do on tape. Now, we made this move, so it’s obvious what I hope and what I believe in with this guy coming in, but it would be a very tough situation if Jimmy’s not on our team. I want Jimmy to be here and I want [Lance] to be brought along. I want to see how he does and if it turns into a competition, it turns into a competition. I’d be excited about that if he showed he was ready for it and stuff, but we know where Jimmy’s at. He hasn’t played football in a year. He hasn’t been to an OTA. I’d love to get him out here. It’d be very hard for me to picture a situation [where] Jimmy’s not here on Sunday, because that would be, I think, very stressful for us because Jimmy is a very good player and I think we can win with him. So, we’ll play that by ear, but I expect Jimmy to be here, and I’d be surprised if he wasn’t.”


Welcome to the game outside the game! Follow us on our Sideaction Twitter handle, Instagram, and Facebook for the latest on sports and pop culture news across the web!

More from NFL, Side Action

More in Jimmy Garoppolo

More News & Stories