Pick-five: Garoppolo keeps giving it up

SANTA CLARA , CALIF. » Jimmy Garoppolo had a practice to forget in his final session before facing an opposing defense for the first time since suffering a season-ending knee injury in September.

Garoppolo threw interceptions on five straight pass attempts at practice for the San Francisco 49ers on Wednesday, by far his worst session since his return from the torn ACL that cut short his 2018 season after three games.

“I was the defensive coach today so I was pumped,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “The defense did great today. Obviously, he struggled. You hope to never have a day like that. But I don’t think it’s never not happened to anyone. When you do that, you hope you can practice long enough and you have a chance to play out of it.”

Garoppolo will get a chance to rebound when the 49ers hold joint practices with the Broncos on Friday and Saturday in preparation for an exhibition game. This will be Garoppolo’s first time facing an opposing defense since injuring his knee in Kansas City last Sept. 23. He will also get a chance to play in the game on Monday night.

The one bright spot in Garoppolo’s poor performance was that it showed that maybe the 49ers will have a more opportunistic defense this season after setting NFL records for futility with just two interceptions and seven takeaways all last season.

San Francisco goes into the joint practices a bit short-handed, especially on the defensive line where starting defensive ends Dee Ford and Nick Bosa remain sidelined.