It’s go time for Garoppolo
Quarterback is named to start his first game as a 49er on Sunday at Chicago
SANTA CLARA >> Jimmy Garoppolo officially got named the 49ers starting quarterback Tuesday, exactly four weeks after arriving in a trade from New England and opening his press conference by saying: “Just thrilled to be here right now.”
Now comes a homecoming of sorts for his starting debut. The 49ers (1-10) play Sunday against the Chicago Bears (3-8)
in Soldier Field, located about 30 miles from Garoppolo’s hometown of Arlington Heights, Illinois.
Tuesday’s news came down via the 49ers’ Twitter account: “49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan met with the team’s quarterbacks today and informed them that Jimmy Garoppolo
will start this Sunday in Chicago.”
Garoppolo becomes the 49ers’ third starting quarterback in 12 games under Shanahan, this change spurred in part because of the knee and hip injuries sustained Sunday by C.J. Beathard, who started the previous five games upon replacing Brian Hoyer.
Garoppolo will follow Shanahan in addressing the media Wednesday at about 12:40 p.m. at Levi’s Stadium’s auditorium.
Garoppolo said after Sunday’s 24-13 loss that he was “pretty excited” about the prospect of playing in Soldier Field for the first time since entering the NFL. He was a 2014 draft pick by the Patriots and backed up Tom Brady for 31/2 seasons, other than his two starts to open the 2016 season while Brady served a suspension.
Garoppolo, an Eastern Illinois product, won his first start by rallying the Patriots past the Arizona Cardinals 23-21 in the opener, throwing for 264 yards and a touchdown. His encore start ended with a sprained right (throwing) shoulder in the second quarter, but only after completing 18-of26 passes for 232 yards and three touchdowns.
None of his 96 career
passes have been intercepted.
Garoppolo will encounter a Bears team on a four-game losing streak. Their defense is missing key players and has only four interceptions all season, the league’s fewest other than the Atlanta Falcons (three) and Raiders (one). Linebackers Leonard Floyd, Willie Young and Jerrell Freeman are injured, as is safety Quintin Demps.
Overall, the Bears are allowing the 15th-fewest points (22.9 per game) and 12th-fewest total yards (328.2) under defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, who previously held that same role with the 49ers from 2011-14.
Garoppolo can only hope his first 49ers start goes as spectacular as he finished his 49ers debut Sunday, when he threw a touchdown pass as time expired, albeit in a 24-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks at Levi’s Stadium. That ending shouldn’t have been too surprising: “Touchdown Jimmy” threw 53 touchdown passes his senior season at Eastern Illinois before the Patriots’ Bill Belichick grabbed him with a 2014 second-round draft pick.
Garoppolo replaced Beathard for Sunday’s final 1:07, and he ran for a 4-yard scramble on his first snap, converted a fourth-down pass to Aldrick Robinson (8 yards) an then rolled left for a 10-yard touchdown strike to Louis Murphy.
Garoppolo, 26, spent the past four weeks cramming Shanahan’s wordy terminology that was vastly different from the Patriots’ system. Some of that intensive studying has come in the film room watching Beathard go 1-4 as a starter since replacing Hoyer, who got released upon Garoppolo’s arrival and promptly signed with the Patriots.
“He’s learned a lot from watching C.J. and talking. He asks a lot of questions,” Shanahan said Monday. “Those guys are great in there. We don’t hold anything back.
“Stuff C.J. is seeing, it’s not like he waits until we’re alone to talk about it. He’ll say it right there and Jimmy will ask a question and vice versa,” Shanahan added. “They definitely help each other. We’ve got a very competitive room, but we’ve also got a lot of confident people that when we’re in there we’re working our hardest to get better.”
Beathard won over teammates’ respect each week for his ability to endure 19 sacks and 63 hits before taking a knockout blow to his left knee by Michael Bennett on Sunday. Beathard, a rookie and third-round draft pick, has completed 54.9 percent of his passes for 1,430 yards and posted a 69.2 rating with four touchdown passes, six interceptions as well as three rushing touchdowns.
Beathard’s gradual improvement didn’t delay Garoppolo’s insertion into the starting role as much as Garoppolo’s need to grasp Shanahan’s system, which likely will cause for him to wear a wristband with play calls on it Sunday at Chicago, as was the case last game.
Those calls can consist from five to 20 words, to which Garoppolo said Sunday: “You need to master those things and I’m in a situation where you have to do it as fast as possible.”
While Garoppolo began to learn the offense, Shanahan never once publicly cited the need for Garoppolo to rush himself, although the coach acknowledged how everyone from teammates to the media to Shanahan’s own wife were pining to see Garoppolo play.
“She hasn’t been allowed to talk about it for a while,” Shanahan said Monday of his wife, Mandy. “She’s backed off some. She’s being more patient, especially now.”
Garoppolo’s own patience has been tested in a backup role, and now he has the opportunity to become a fulltime starter since his days at Eastern Illinois.
“You always have to be ready. I’ve been saying it for the past four years,” Garoppolo said Sunday. “You never know when your time is going to come, if it’s going to come, so when it does you’ve got to take advantage of it.”