Raiders, 49ers focus on Gruden, Garoppolo contract.
Garoppolo is mostly non-committal over signing long-term deal
SANTA CLARA >> Jimmy Garoppolo’s next contract is now the 49ers’ first and foremost offseason priority, and although he was shrewdly non-committal Monday about a potential long-term deal, he repeatedly said “we” when referring to next season’s 49ers.
As teammates packed up after a 6-10 season that ended on a five-win heater, Garoppolo did not give the impression he wants to skip town for good as arguably the NFL’s most coveted free agent.
“Um, I like being here,” Garoppolo said. “We had a good thing going at the end of this year. You know, we’ll see what happens.” He’ll surely see the franchise tag by March 6 if a multi-year contract isn’t awarded by a franchise he’s revitalized with coach Kyle Shanahan.
“I really haven’t had a chance to think about it,” Garoppolo, 26, said. “The season just ended. We have a long way to go. When we get those conversations started,
we’ll go from there.”
Such was his playinghard-to-get vibe while he blushed at the 49ers’ upside.
Garoppolo has been on a self-described “crash course” the past two months, learning a scheme he “really likes” for its diversity and unpredictability.
It’s one he hopes to master this offseason for a “special” and “tight-knit” group.
“From the first day I got here, they were very accepting,” Garoppolo said.
On his immediate agenda: a quick getaway with teammates to Las Vegas, a visit to his family near Chicago and a chat in Southern California with agent Don Yee, who’ll be negotiating with a 49ers front office that could have $130 million in salary cap space.
Wide receiver Marquise Goodwin, honored by teammates with the prestigious Len Eshmont Award, is “thrilled” about next season’s anticipated encore with Garoppolo. Goodwin duly noted that Garoppolo is 7-0 all-time as a starter and 5-0 as the 49ers’ starter, adding: “That’s huge for him and huge for the organization, and it brings so much hope to everybody.”
Hope sells, and veteran left tackle Joe Staley made for a great pitchman about how hot the 49ers finished with Garoppolo as their starter.
“I mean, 6-10 at the end of the season, but I don’t think there’s a team in the NFL that would want to see us right now in the playoffs,” Staley said.
This is Garoppolo’s
fourth season, and his first not ending in the playoffs, having won Super Bowls as Tom Brady’s backup in New England in 2014 and 2016, with those titles sandwiched around an AFC Championship game loss.
“Yeah, this is the earliest I’ve been done in my NFL career,” Garoppolo said. “Hopefully we don’t get used to this feeling. … I wish we were going to the playoffs and making a run and everything. But it’ll have to wait until next year and we’ll see what happens then.”
• Garoppolo issued a strong endorsement for center Daniel Kilgore, one of the 49ers’ 19 unrestricted free agents. Kilgore missed only one snap all season and won the Bobb McKittrick Award from his peers as their top linemen.
“There’s a special relationship between the center and quarterback. We spend so much time together,” Garoppolo said. “Me and him got on the same page almost instantly when I got here. … We complement each other very well, so hopefully we’ll work something out.”
Staley also vouched for Kilgore, describing him as the line’s trustworthy “captain” and hoping that the 49ers brass sees how much work he’s put in as a seventh-year pro. “I like to pride myself on being knowledgeable and hard working, but that guy outworks me,” Staley said.
• Defensive end DeForest Buckner, the 49ers’ Hazeltine Iron Man Award winner, headed Monday for an exam on his sternum, which he injured in a pileup Sunday.
Buckner anchored a defense that ranked seventh in allowing 3.79 yards per carry, a massive jump after finishing last in 2016 with a 4.84-yard average. “The whole defense started to jell a lot better, especially in stopping the run,” Buckner said. “We had a lot of injuries along the way and young guys stepping up at a high level.”
• Rookie safety Adrian Colbert started six of the final seven games and was “a dude playing possessed,” said injured safety Jaquiski Tartt. Colbert said of winning the Thomas Herrion Award winner as an opportunistic rookie: “Coming in that late — a seventh-round and 229th (overall) pick — you’re not going to be given anything. You have to work for it.”