49ers say no plans to start Jimmy Garoppolo after bye, taking it week to week

The San Francisco 49ers are going to play Jimmy Garoppolo ... sometime. There were some reports that the team planned on playing their newest quarterback, acquired in a trade with the New England Patriots on Oct. 30, after its bye in Week 11, but head coach Kyle Shanahan refuted those on Sunday.

Following the 49ers’ 31-21 win over the New York Giants, Shanahan didn’t rule out the possibility that Garoppolo could play in Week 12, he simply said that there were no plans set in stone prior to Sunday’s game.

“I don’t have a plan yet,” Shanahan said. “It’s not just about C.J. Not just about Jimmy.”

At this point, I’m taking his statements at face value because I don’t believe that C.J. Beathard’s strong performance against the 1-8 Giants changes anything. They still need to see what they have in Garoppolo, a player they believe in and invested a second-round pick in. That still needs to happen at some point this year, before the 2018 NFL Draft and the offseason at large.

Beathard can play out of his mind for the next couple weeks, and it still doesn’t change the fact that Garoppolo is going to play and get an opportunity to be the franchise quarterback. It doesn’t hurt that he’s playing well, and hopefully that continues, but this is more a sign that Shanahan is sticking to his initial guns: Garoppolo will not be rushed into the fold to his own detriment.

Beathard, for what it’s worth, completed 19 of 25 passes for 288 yards with a pair of touchdowns. He also had 15 yards rushing and a touchdown on the ground. Unfortunately, he also had a really terrible interception on a screen pass that he desperately wants back right now.