The 49ers got a preseason reunion with Jimmy Garoppolo on Thursday, the first of two joint practices with the Las Vegas Raiders. Las Vegas signed Garoppolo to a three-year, $72 million deal which was complicated by a failed medical and an $11 million signing bonus which was turned into non-guaranteed base salary after the medical.
He spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Mike Silver and delved into his past with the 49ers.
Garoppolo admitted that the 2021 season, when the 49ers traded up to draft Trey Lance third overall, was uncomfortable. From the article:
Yeah, the year before was real awkward. That was tougher than this past year, honestly. You’re always gonna be dealt a hard hand at some point, and you’ve just got to make the best of it, and that’s what I’ve tried to do. That was a hard time. But I had some good people around me to lean on. The brothers in the locker room, those guys played a big role. I don’t think the fans always saw all that stuff, but those guys really picked me up when I was down sometimes.
That’s why I love those guys in the locker room. All the crap that we went through for four to five years, whatever it was, we all stayed together in the locker room, and I thought that’s what made us such a tight group.
There has long been an understanding of under-the-surface tension between 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan and Garoppolo, but the results together were overwhelmingly positive.
His foot injury didn’t heal properly, Garoppolo said, because he was trying to avoid surgery and rehab for a potential 49ers playoff appearance.
If the 49ers had made the Super Bowl, with Brock Purdy hurt?
“Oh yeah, I was playing,” Garoppolo told Silver. “That was kind of the plan of not getting the surgery.”
Of course, they never got that chance. And when asked about the possibility of Garoppolo returning, Shanahan was perhaps a bit more blunt than some expected, saying, “No, I don’t see any scenario of that.”
Silver asked Garoppolo about those comments.
“Yeah, definitely,” Garoppolo said. “I didn’t see it, no, but someone probably texted me about it. I don’t know if I responded.”
