Lynch on Lance: He’s everything we thought he was when we traded a lot to go get him and more

49ers general manager John Lynch is scheduled to speak to the media this morning at around 10:15 a.m. PT. Lynch joined NFL Network’s Good Morning Football and talked to Peter Schrager, mostly about quarterbacks.

Lynch was asked if he knew Jimmy Garoppolo would need surgery headed into this offseason:

No, we didn’t know that. And I don’t think Jimmy knew that, either. He’s made a decision here in the last couple of days. He had an injury in that Dallas game. He was dealing with a couple of things. His thumb. My goodness, my admiration. Jimmy, what he did throwing the football and leading us through this playoff run was just tremendous. And he did it with a couple of injuries.

The shoulder and I never like saying minor when someone is having surgery, but it’s a capsule tissue in the back of his shoulder that you try to rehab. If it doesn’t get well with the rehab, then you go with the alternative route. It’s going to take some time but he’s going to be fine. We’re so fond of Jimmy. That situation is active and fluid. A lot of teams have interest in him.

Garoppolo should be commended for playing through multiple injuries and putting the team before himself. He could’ve easily made the situation about him, thought about his future, and gotten the surgery earlier.

It is a bit of a surprise, though, that neither party knew surgery was coming. Schrager used Phoenix Suns guard Chris Paul as an example, as he and Jimmy both have the same thumb injury. Paul has a right thumb avulsion fracture, which is keeping him out 6-8 weeks. Jimmy missed one week.

Jordan Schultz and a couple of other reporters on the ground at the NFL Combine reported something similar to Lynch, saying multiple teams have shown interest in Garoppolo. Schultz said the Steelers and Commanders are “both highly intrigued by Jimmy G.” Schultz referenced how Matt Canda wants to deploy an RPO-style offense, while Ron Rivera believes his team can win now and has over $30 million in cap space.

Here’s Lynch on Trey Lance:

“It’s pretty obvious we put a lot into Trey Lance. We’re loving the development of Trey. He had an outstanding first year.

A lot of people will say, ‘how can you say that, he barely played?’ But the development was tremendous. I think Kyle [Shanahan] did a great job of developing him without playing a ton of football on Sundays. I think the fact that he got some action and got to get a taste of it was great. I loved watching him get better in those games.

He’s everything we thought he was when we traded a lot to go get him and more. I really believe that. There’s a ton of excitement. Of course, there’s some unknown. There always is in this game. Trey’s made of the right stuff. Both talent wise and in his spirit of who he is, the intangibles. Guys like playing for him. Guys like being around him. We’re certainly excited to see what he can do.”

Lynch mentioned how Lance had “some wow moments.” Here’s more from Lynch:

“The confidence. You’re on scout team, so oftentimes you’re asked to throw this ball in there. But then he would and the pass would still get in there. I think he attacked it the right way. I keep talking about his mental capabilities. I think he just has that makeup that the great ones do. We can only hope he can be Patrick Mahomes or anything close to that. He’s going to have a chance to go show that.”

I think we can put the Mahomes comparisons to bed. That’s not fair to either player. Mahomes is a unicorn. We’re not seeing another quarterback like him come along in a long, long time. Lance’s physical talent is undeniable. If he has what it takes upstairs, then the 49ers are in good hands. But, please, no more Mahomes comparisons.

As Lynch said, Lance will have a chance to show who he is. Wouldn’t a fair comparison for Lance be the quarterback he’s succeeding? Let’s see how they stack up against each other in the first year, starting in a Shanahan offense, and go from there.