The 49ers are better situated at quarterback this season than they could have ever imagined.
It does not matter how it got to this place. And that was a definite point of emphasis for the organization Tuesday in describing how the pieces came together to enable Jimmy Garoppolo to remain with the 49ers.
General manager John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan have no regrets and are not second-guessing themselves for anything that happened along the way.
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Instead of a 49ers quarterback depth chart consisting of an unproven Trey Lance and an even-more unproven Brock Purdy, the 49ers have provided themselves with quite a safety net at the backup position.
Shanahan, a bottom-line kind of guy, compared the 49ers’ situation to what he sees around the NFL.
“There aren't 32 starting quarterbacks in this league, and we believe we have two of them now,” Shanahan said.
Garoppolo joined a winless team in the middle of the 2017 season, and the facts are the facts.
San Francisco 49ers
In games Garoppolo started over the past five seasons, the 49ers were 35-16, including 4-2 in the postseason. In all other games, the 49ers were 8-28.
Garoppolo accepted a pay cut from $24.2 million in base salary to $7 million in salary and per-game roster bonuses to remain with the 49ers as Lance’s backup.
Shanahan views everything else as completely irrelevant.
Lynch and Shanahan say nothing could have been done any differently with Garoppolo’s participation -- or lack thereof -- in training camp. They were in communication with him all along and were on the same page, as far as meeting the needs of the team and the player.
It would have been completely uncomfortable for him to sit in on meetings and too risky for him to participate in practices. After all, it was always considered a long shot Garoppolo would remain with the 49ers.
The only drawbacks for the 49ers opening the season with Garoppolo behind Lance have nothing to do with football.
It will be too awkward.
It will put too much pressure on Lance.
It could create a divide in the locker room if Lance does not start strong.
To all that, Shanahan believes those are the opinions of only people outside the building. Those concerns are not based in reality.
Knowing Lance and Garoppolo, he’s not worried about it being too awkward. The two individuals get along well and support each other.
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Lance is the starting quarterback. Shanahan believes the level of pressure is what it is, regardless of Garoppolo’s location.
And the 49ers also think they are built to withstand challenges. They believe they have constructed a locker room of strong character that will rally behind whichever quarterback takes the field -- in good times and bad.