Jimmy Garoppolo offers his own version of ‘on to Jacksonville’

The San Francisco 49ers will have some decisions to make this offseason with regard to Jimmy Garoppolo’s contract, but in the meantime, the quarterback is focused on the task at hand. When asked on Wednesday if he had considered the idea of sticking around Santa Clara for the long haul, Garoppolo offered up a response that seemed like it was written by Bill Belichick.

“I think if we handle the Jaguars well, it will be a good test for us — and finish out the season well, we’ll figure out after that.”

Belichick would have just said the first part in his version of “On to the Jaguars,” but clearly Garoppolo has learned from Belichick and Tom Brady when it comes to spinning out of questions you don’t want to deal with at this point.

Back in October, after the trade, Garoppolo was asked his thoughts about sticking around for the long-term with the 49ers. Given that he was in his first 24 hours with the team, it was no surprise he said he was just taking things week-to-week, getting to know everybody and learning the system.

He’s been around for nearly two months now, but it is still a big learning process, for both sides. John Lynch has said they speak with his agent, Don Yee, regularly, but they have not entered into formal contract negotiations. Those will happen eventually, but it really does make sense to wait. The 49ers get two more games of film on Garoppolo, with both games coming against two of the best defenses in the NFL. Garoppolo gets two more games to show how good he can be.

A strong finish in these two games puts Garoppolo in position to cash in with a big extension, and the 49ers would likely get a little more confidence in negotiating a big extension. I’d love to see something get done sooner rather than later, but there really is no rush between now and early March.