San Francisco careful to give Garoppolo time

Jimmy Garoppolo’s three weeks in the building after being acquired as the potential quarterback of the future for the San Francisco 49ers have only solidified general manager John Lynch’s belief in the trade.

Lynch has watched Garoppolo spend extra time at the facility trying to learn the offense and getting to know his teammates and seen his strong arm in action on the practice field.

Lynch and the organization are still in no rush to see Garoppolo on the field as the starter in place of C.J. Beathard.

“We’re trying to accelerate the growth, but we don’t want to rush it. But it gets a little better and gets a little more comfortable with each given day. He’s working at it extremely hard.”

While most of his teammates got the idle week off last week, Garoppolo had extra tutoring time with quarterbacks coach Rich Scangarello and coach Kyle Shanahan to get up to speed after being acquired from New England Oct. 31 for a 2018 second-round pick.

Raiders

Oakland fired defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. in a staff shake-up during a disappointing season. Coach Jack Del Rio called the move a difficult decision and said that assistant head coach for defense John Pagano will take over as coordinator leading into a home game Sunday against the Denver Broncos. “I have the utmost respect for Ken, but I feel that moving John Pagano into the play-calling role will best utilize his wealth of experience,” Del Rio said.

Broncos

Coach Vance Joseph has decided to start former firstrounder Paxton Lynch at quarterback Sunday against the Raiders. The Broncos are mired in a six-game losing streak and just changed offensive coordinators. Lynch will replace Brock Osweiler, who lost all three of his starts after replacing Trevor Siemian.

Seahawks

Seattle waived veteran defensive end Dwight Freeney just four games after signing him to help boost its pass rush. Freeney was signed in late October to boost the pass rush after Cliff Avril was lost to a neck injury earlier in the season. Freeney had three sacks in his first two games, moving into 17th on the all-time sack list.

Matt Freed/Post-Gazette Tennessee’s Derrick Henry, right, breaks away from Sean Davis in the Steelers’ most recent game. Said Mike Tomlin — “We’re not going to be a dominant group until we minimize big plays and we tackle better.”