Beathard on Garoppolo: He’s a good guy... it’d be different if it was a guy who was cocky

San Francisco 49ers quarterback C.J. Beathard has shown some improvement in his rookie campaign since coming in for Brian Hoyer. While there’s been some bad, the good was on display during the 49ers 31-21 route of the New York Giants.

But there’s the elephant in the room, or the sidelines: Jimmy Garoppolo. The 49ers coaching staff is trying to get him ready to eventually take Beathard’s job. Worse, this happened only a handful of starts in Beathard’s career. While this gameday experience will be invaluable to the current 49ers starter, and may make the 49ers quarterback room one of the strongest in the league, one may think there’s some resentment from Beathard for not getting much to prove himself, let alone his coach trading for another quarterback mid-season.

Not the case if you listen to Matt Maiocco’s recent podcast with Beathard. The trade and the future obviously came up, and Beathard had probably the best answer you could ask for regarding the surprise of the trade:

“Was I shocked at first? Yeah, but I had a good conversation with Kyle all week throughout that. He made it clear that it had nothing to do with the previous weeks, it was just an opportunity to make the team better, make the quarterback room better. There’s nothing better than good competition. I think competition brings out the best in anyone. Not only anyone, but Jimmy, he’s a good guy. I’ve said this before, but it’d be different if it was a guy who was cocky, a guy that nobody liked, but that’s not the case here. He’s a nice guy and it’s been cool getting to work with him.”

Credit to Kyle Shanahan for still having the locker room after the season the team is having. Handling situations like this could cause issues with the players. It was rumored a lot of mistrust seeped into the locker room during the Alex Smith/Colin Kaepernick quarterback controversy when Jim Harbaugh decided to bench Smith for Kaepernick. While Beathard probably isn’t a fan of the move, he seems to be the ultimate teammate and understands the business side of the league.

It’s been documented how upfront Shanahan is in these situations. Kirk Cousins said that when Shanahan drafted him, they laid out the plan immediately: get Cousins experience and trade him to a team he could start. We don’t know what the plan is behind the scenes with Shanahan and Beathard, but at least the relationship between the quarterbacks isn’t soured by any of this.

I’ve time-stamped the entire interview below, as well as Jeff Garcia’s appearance at the end. It’s definitely worth a listen if you have some time.

C.J. Beathard

2:08 - How he’s feeling after all the hits
2:30 - His impressions of the VR room
4:30 - Ratio between game reps and VR reps
5:11 - The transition from college to the pro game and if anything jumped out
6:05 - At what point did he realize his grandfather [Bobby Beathard] is a legend
8:08 - On if Bobby Beathard looks at C.J.’s film
9:00 - On growing up the son of a country music writer
10:01 - Crossovers between entertainment and football?
11:24 - Beathard’s musical abilities
13:20 - Getting starstruck being around so many celebrities
14:03 - Donald Trump’s tweet after being drafted
14:45 - Playing in a pro-style offense and how it prepared him for the NFL
15:45 - Going from starter to backup, backup to starter
17:00 - How he learned of the Garoppolo trade
18:56 - Thinking ahead to next week and what his role will be after the bye
19:57 - Thoughts on the Marquise Goodwin touchdown given the personal issues
22:07 - The locker room after the win over the New York Giants
23:22 - Plans for the bye week

Jeff Garcia

24:00 - What do the 49ers do after Beathard’s game against the Giants
25:11 - Appreciating that Beathard wouldn’t come out after the thumb injury
26:00 - How do you approach bye weeks?
27:30 - Kyle Shanahan’s mood after winning his first game
28:45 - Where do the 49ers go from here?