The San Francisco 49ers may not have to wait until training camp to see Jimmy Garoppolo again. The 49ers are hopeful their quarterback will be back on the field for OTAs, per Ian Rapoport.
John Lynch was on SiriusXM NFL Radio’s Movin’ The Chains last week and indicated some positive developments when he revealed Garoppolo was throwing with running back Jerick McKinnon. Both tore their ACLs around the same time in 2018, McKinnon three weeks earlier than Garoppolo.
Speaking of McKinnon, in the same report, Rapoport says that the two are competing in rehab and pushing each other. Here’s the full transcript:
I actually talked to 49ers general manager John Lynch recently on my podcast, he had a solid update on Jimmy Garoppolo who by the way is rehabbing at the exact same time with Jerick McKinnon. They are competing against each other as far as who is more ready. Both ACL rehabs, obviously McKinnon’ s just a couple weeks before, but certainly good news for the 49ers. They expect Garoppolo to be on the field for the start of OTAs. That is a big-time benchmark. If he’s not ready, it doesn’t negatively affect the season, but obviously, a huge lift for his team, having the star quarterback out there for all of the spring drills. Just allows him to kind of ease into the offseason to make sure he’s ready for the start of training camp.
Kyle Shanahan offered up a rough timeline of sorts on when Garoppolo could be back and it indicated OTAs were a definite possibility—or at least hoped it was. If Garoppolo isn’t throwing in OTAs, it’s not the end of the world. Lynch has had nothing but positive things to say about Garoppolo’s rehab and there has been no word of any complications in his recovery.
This is just another positive nugget that we’ll be seeing Jimmy G sooner rather than later.