San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch said on Thursday that offensive guard Joshua Garnett has been fully cleared for practice. Garnett spent the 2017 season on injured reserve following a knee injury suffered during the preseason. The injury itself likely was not season-ending, but the team wanted him to rebuild his body to better compete in Kyle Shanahan’s offensive scheme.
Lynch met with 49ers beat writers during the Stanford Pro Day, and he provided an update on all the interior offensive linemen. He is happy with Garnett’s progress, and that led to this money quotation, courtesy of Cam Inman.
“Josh is doing very well. We’ll continue to watch him. But he did a great job with the time he had last year to improve himself as a player. He really remade his body and we’re really proud of the work he’s done. We look forward to him getting after it in the offseason. … I think he’s excited about it. He’s feeling sexy, as he says.”
We definitely need Jennifer Chan asking Garnett at the offseason workout program if he is indeed feeling sexy. And if he is, as someone mentioned in Twitter, it might be time to call him Big Sexy. Pitcher Bartolo Colon might take issue with the use of his nickname, but if Garnett is able to snag a starting guard spot, I see no reason not to call him Big Sexy for the foreseeable future. We might even have to come up with a t-shirt for it!
It’s a huge offseason for Garnett. The last regime traded into the end of the first round to snag him back in 2016. He had some positive performances as a rookie, but had his work cut out for him with the new regime. The offseason workout program will give us our first full look at Garnett in his “new body,” but really we’ll be left to wait until training camp and the opening of the preseason to see just how he looks in Shanahan’s blocking scheme.