49ers’ goal still for QB Jimmy Garoppolo to return late in playoffs
The 49ers still aren’t ruling out a late-postseason return for injured quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan on Friday said the team is still planning to get Garoppolo back in the event they make either the NFC championship game or the Super Bowl.
The latest update on the 49ers’ veteran QB is that he’s now putting weight on his foot.
“I think he can put a little weight on it,” Shanahan said in his Friday press conference, “but he’s not out there running and stuff like that, so it’s a little bit away.”
Garoppolo suffered a broken foot early in the 49ers’ Week 13 win over the Dolphins. His season was expected to be over, but he avoided surgery which put a seven-week timeline for his return. Seven weeks from his injury would bring him back after the divisional playoffs.
Shanahan has indicated since then that seven weeks is just for recovery. That doesn’t necessarily mean the club would be ready to put Garoppolo on the field after seven weeks. The fact he hasn’t started running yet with just three weeks until championship weekend doesn’t instill a ton of confidence that he’ll be a full go by then.
There’ll also be a decision if he is ready to go on whether the team should make another quarterback change before the NFC championship. It’s hard to imagine they’d do that considering it would mean benching a starting QB who was 8-0 in eight starts, but they could be shooting for Garoppolo to replace Josh Johnson as the backup the rest of the way.
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