As I’m writing this, San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is still at the podium addressing the assembled media at the NFL Scouting Combine. He’s talked about quite a few things thus far, from C.J. Beathard to meetings with prospects, but one line in particular stood out to me as pretty good.
“I learned that the way to make people feel good about (finishing the season at) 6-10 is start 0-9,” Shanahan said. “Glad we didn’t do it the other way around.”
The 49ers started the season with nine consecutive losses, first with Brian Hoyer and then with rookie C.J. Beathard at quarterback. They eventually traded for Jimmy Garoppolo, who led them to five consecutive wins down the stretch, and that was enough to get just about everybody’s jimmies rustled, but in a very a good way.
So, he’s making a joke here — a quip — but what he’s saying is actually very true. I mean, Garoppolo pretty much single-handedly killed the Niners Nation DOOM Index, an extremely popular Internet column on how we’re all resigned to abject self-destruction from a very charming and excellent writer who I won’t name.
We’ll have a lot more on the actual substantial things that Shanahan and general manager John Lynch discussed, including transcripts later in the day and what you should take from them. I just wanted to highlight this nice little joke from the 49ers’ head coach, a man who seems extremely pleased to not have to worry about the quarterback situation going forward.