Pete Carroll not concerned with 49ers starting quarterback

The San Francisco 49ers are starting C.J. Beathard at quarterback against the Seattle Seahawks, head coach Kyle Shanahan confirmed on Wednesday. But before he made that confirmation, the Bay Area media spoke to Pete Carroll, head coach of the Seahawks, and asked him how he’s preparing.

Carroll’s answer isn’t particularly surprising given his nature, but he was very adamant that it didn’t really matter who played, regardless.

“Yeah, we can’t do anything about that,” Carroll said. “We have no say in that at all. Whoever plays plays."

He was asked about preparing for Beathard vs. preparing for someone like Jimmy Garoppolo, who will serve as Beathard’s primary backup for Sunday’s game, and Carroll reiterated his stance.

“Guys, it really isn’t a factor. How would we go about preparing? We’re just preparing for the 49ers. And they’ve got a style of offense. They’ve got really good players that do what they do. Whoever’s triggering it from the quarterback spot, we’re gonna go play football. We’ve seen Jimmy play. We’ve seen how he’s mobile and the kind of athlete and competitor he is. But other than that, we just go play ball. We can’t do anything about that.”

That definitely does make sense. Beathard can’t have an entire, full grasp on Shanahan’s offense at this point, and neither can Garoppolo. They’re both running the scheme distilled through their own skillsets, and they aren’t vastly different quarterbacks. It makes sense for the Seahawks to prepare for the offensive scheme and it makes sense that Carroll would feel this way.