49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo has gone from odd man out to next man up. Now, with seven regular-season games left on his current contract and a one-way ticket to free agency after the season, he says he’s not thinking about next year.
“I’m trying to worry about red zone [offense] today,” Garoppolo told reporters when asked about the future on Friday. “No, I’ll worry about that at the end of the year. There’s too much going on right now, especially in a short week like this. It’s been a bit of a catch-up week, so had to catch up on sleep, catch up on our film stuff, but yeah, we’ll worry about that when we get there.”
The 49ers played the Cardinals in Mexico City on Monday night. The 49ers host the Saints on Sunday.
Garoppolo was asked how he keeps his focus on the task at hand.
“I think routine’s a big part of it,” Garoppolo said. “I just love football, man, so that kind of makes it easy. There will be times throughout the season where you want to kick back a little bit and relax, but no, I love football. It’s easy waking up every morning, going after it, and we don’t have to work real jobs, we’re football players, so we’re lucky man, you have to take advantage of it.”
Garoppolo took advantage of an opportunity to stay in San Francisco and then, when starter Trey Lance suffered a broken ankle, became the guy again. It took a while; as reporters pointed out to him today, he took some body blows after the Week Three loss to the Broncos. Now, Garoppolo is the man, all over again.
“That’s that the life of a quarterback,” Garoppolo said. “It’s always going to be a rollercoaster. Every season is, no one’s going to just be perfect the whole season, but I think the good teams find a way to just be right down the middle during the ups and downs. A lot of things are said out there. A lot of people have opinions, but our locker room is steady. I think we have a good group of leaders in there, which plays a big role and the rest of the guys kind of follow suit and it’s worked out well for us.”
There could be a different “us” for Garoppolo next year. Unless the 49ers sign him to a new deal, he’ll become a free agent in March. The better he plays this year, the more teams will consider adding him in 2023.