because this is a very real,
by product of what happened yesterday.
Now, the guy who had been given the keys to the car has
a backseat driver
in Jimmy G now. If Trail and struggles,
it doesn't have to worry about getting bench for Nate sub
felled. But what he does have to worry about next mistake,
could be last mistake. Yeah.
Just looking over your shoulder just a little bit. That's all
it takes. I remember Ron Jaworski explaining this years
ago on ESPN when you have somebody looking over your
shoulder as a backup quarterback and your
the starter
you grip the ball a little bit
more tightly. You, you stare down receipt you. I don't want
to make a mistake here.
I don't want to make a mistake, you don't play as freely and
Loosely as you could because you're thinking,
I'm home that either. There may be a shelf life on me. Now
is Trey Lance going to think that
that's a good question.
I mean that that is the million-dollar question.
I've seen it go both ways. Sometimes guys Thrive can
Thrive with that guy kind of you know, looking over there
they're they're back a little bit,
you know, but more times or not I feel like it's a guy that has
already established himself. I mean, like you take Joe
Montana. It was like, okay, he's won two Super Bowls. He
can deal with the
If Steve Young breathing down his neck,
Brady had a deal with Garoppolo little early on right. Damn.
They brought this guy in a replace me, but he had already
shown enough Merit and clutching his and others who
are he? Could overcome it
you know again yeah. This is gonna be an interesting one.
It was the red hot poker on his ass as you always say. Exactly
right Jordan love, right? That's the thing. That's
the key and this is the
initial pressure cooker moment for trail. And yeah, I think
that this is why the 49ers should be fine with
the possibility. These going to Crumble under the weight of
having Jimmy Garoppolo there. Because
if you can't deal with that,
you never going to deal with the pressure
of a key postseason game or Super Bowl.
You know, can't Thrive with that. Kick in the ass from
Jimmy Garoppolo being literally pulled From the Ashes and put
back on the roster. We're never going to be able to count on
you
with what we're trying to accomplish because you're
either going to look at this as a challenge and rise to
the occasion or going to fall apart. Going to fall apart, go
ahead and do it so we'll know. Yeah I know this is why some
teams don't ever have that
talented, backup quarterback because it can go either way
and they want to set it up to where they can get their
confidence and not have to worry about it, you know, but
again, there can be positives to
I, you know, to speak from my own experience and year two
of my NFL career,
you know, it's two years after the Bucks have won the Super
Bowl. Brad Johnson is a starter. So I had a guy in my
vision To Go. Whoo, I want to beat him.
Everyday. I want to beat him every day, and at the same time,
I had a guy in Brian Griese behind me, where I was going,
I got to stay on my game because this dude right here,
he's on his game every day and it did help me rise to
the challenge. And then,
you know, I was fortunate to where they bench Brad and I got
to play and I got hurt or so greasy got to come in there.
But you know,
I felt like in my case it up my game.
I had a still, whoa. I gotta be on it all the time. Here we go.
Let's go. They're breathing down my Neck and I got this
crazy Gruden. You know, mfn me all the time too. So I better
be on my game
so there it can be that way as well.
But but again we've seen others that, you know, don't prefer
that. And I'll be interested here. I think this is part of
the reason, when you've heard Shanahan and Lynch talk about
train Lance,
I think it goes beyond what they thought, physically
potential. He has as far as a player, I hear that they you
know, you've heard Kyle talked about his meant
Leti. And he think he has all the right things in that
department to be the big time quarterback. Well, alright,
we're going to see this is adversity for the first time in
really probably his athletic life because he's been pretty
special athlete athlete's no matter where he
is, but different too. Because I go adversity for a guy,
three first-round picks the number three pick,
and
not the most natural thrower in the world, and really didn't
play that much college football to lean on, either to where you
just go. Oh, well, He's been in these situations and had a deal
with somebody breathing down his neck before know, he really
didn't
and again we he hasn't even had it like we always talked about.
He never really dealt with the two-minute drill in college. So
there's some things here that we're going to get answered to
see how he handles pressure, on a day-to-day basis. Because
today, when Jimmy G walks into the locker room,
it's going to be, it's going to make Trail and feel bad. It's
going to make it is I just I've been in this situation
especially when he sees he went
when he says George
You hit, all right, and do what up, what up, Jimmy? What up,
Jimmy? Oh, Jimmy's back, Jimmy's Mac. He's in here. All
that and the locker room. And yeah, that's going to be
the first test to see if he can just deal with that and swipe
it under the rug
and stay focused on what he needs to stay focused on.
Can you imagine the text messages that were circulated
last night among the members of the 49ers? Who
Who thought Jimmy was gone? Yeah. Whenever whenever they
became aware last night, everybody knew about it
whenever the flicker came and my guess is
Kyle probably went and pre-positioned
some of the key leaders on the team. So they would know what
was going to happen. So they weren't stunned by it. Right.
But whenever that, that happened at Hope, ho ho, ho all
the emotions. I mean,
can you huh? It's
this is going to be delicate and it's going to be awkward
and my question Continues to be this Chris, and I assume that
whenever
Kyle Shanahan and or John Lynch, the GM of the team are
available to talk to the media. They'll be asked about week,
one will Jimmy be in uniform because there will be a dollar
value that you get your per game. Roster bonus,
if you're on the 46 Man, game day roster.
So is this truly
Saving Jimmy G for a rainy day that hasn't come yet and
you know yeah he's practicing but we're not going to put him
on the game day roster yet or is it Jimmy Garoppolo is number
two
on the depth chart and for what they're paying him.
How could you not make him number two on the depth chart?
That's right make them available for every game.
That's right. If you are concerned about durability and
or ineffectiveness why would you not have in there?
You could have him there ready to go and that win that you
finagle when he replaces Trail and could be the difference
between and not play on your saw, how narrow their margin
was last year. These are very, very
razor-thin opportunities. One game,
not just, in January
the games in September, October. November, December,
set the stage for where you are. When it comes down
the stretch, you flip one of those games the other way from
September or October, you're in the playoffs or not.
And I think he's going to be there. Oh, I do too
now that they've accepted him back, right?
He'll be where number 10,
he'll be on the sidelines
and Trail. Going to have to deal with that. And if you
can't and this is they, I think what this is
is putting the trade Lance development into overdrive.
Trey it's time. You got to do it. You had your red shirt
year.
You've got to do it and if you don't we have to do what's in
the best interest of the team. That's right. If we don't do
it, then you're going to Redshirt you again and it's
gonna be till next year
and will you know hopefully develop and it works out better
that way. Yeah but but I'm with you and I would be shocked.
I mean I I would think that all, yes, he is going to be
in uniform, Jimmy G,
and he'll be getting the number two reps today in practice,
and he'll probably even get a few reps with the ones just
because God, she hasn't got out there and practice a whole lot.
So they're going to want to probably catch him up a little
bit.
So yes, it's this is going to be a
big test for Trey Lance and to see how he reacts. And
can you continue to be the leader of the football team and
stay focused and do all the right things or the guy that he
knows a lot of the team likes. And he knows the
Probably better than he does.
So not going to be an easy situation, but we'll see what
Lance has made up
and I can't rule it out. I think it's incredibly remote.
But
one thing we've learned with this development is you have to
be ready for anything. Even the thing that they said wasn't
going to happen,
there's a chance, small slim
maybe even miniscule.
The Jimmy G starts week one at Chicago.
There's a chance because what if Trey Lance just craps
the bed now what if he just completely loses it? Now that
Jimmy garoppolo's back,
they all welcome him into the locker room
and he's thinking huh? Boy goes out on the practice field
and Kyle starts putting the pressure on him to see what he
does and he doesn't rise to it. There's a chance a small chance
but we can't ignore
the small chance
because it's a bigger chance
than what we just saw play out with Jimmy.
Dang, there's a small chance that that Jimmy's the starter
week one and that Kyle admits to the World.
Trey just isn't ready
and I can't In fairness to him
and In fairness to the team
put him in a spot and expect them to perform
when I know he's not ready. Very slim chance but we can't
rule it out. Yeah. I mean you know I mean I don't think it
happens either
I'm with you there
but you'd be shocked if it does
II guess I would be at this point I'd be shocked I'd be shocked.
But I think the, the question that I think is to your point
here, a little bit is,
how long is the leash going to be? That to me is something I'm
very interested in. I mean if we may not even make it to
week, I know. Wait. Yes
I am and and that to me would be
like a big warning sign like, oh, crap. Damn if they did,
it's that bad.
Whoa, like it's that bad that we went with them all training
camp and here just, you know, 12 days before the season
starts, we're going to we're Going to have them be the back
up and start you know,
start down that road.
I don't feel like that would happen
again. I think they want to make it happen with Trail ants.
They want him to take control here but they realize, there's
a bias, he's not. But so we that's we want to make it work
with Trey.
We want to clear Jimmy Garoppolo off the roster and
hand the keys to Trey. I couldn't do it. Yeah. But we're
not ready to do it. Yeah, because that strategy,
apparently didn't work
getting Jimmy Garoppolo out of sight.
Almost completely out of mind telling the world. He's going
to be off the team from the get-go. When Kyle said it
on the Tim kawakami podcast and then met with reporters
the next day. The point was made, it was hammered home. Trey
Lance,
you're driving the car.
Unimpaired unimpeded unfettered
unrestricted. It's you.
Now, it's not
because you didn't drive the car while enough. No, then
drive the car while enough. Definitely not. If they had
full faith in trade, Lance, they would not have done this.
They wouldn't have done it no way. So exactly. Right. That's
the point. There's no way they wanted to do this. And if Trey,
Lance was kicking butt in practice in the preseason, on
an everyday basis,
there's no way Jimmy Garoppolo would be back, no way,
but that's not the case. And I think that's why we were saying
earlier and it says it all the minute the fact that they made
this move and You said they literally said this guy won't
be here. And now he's here says it all for the guy that's, you
know, The
Golden Child through the 49ers organization right now that
they all want to make it work and justify everything they did
there. So, yeah, I think it speaks volumes to where they're
at in this situation and they got some work to do as far as
getting him
ready. And and this is one of the reasons why I relish
the opportunity to have the back and forth with you, where there
really isn't. Any restriction on how When we talk about it,
no one has told us. We need to go to break or anything like
that yet
but we reviewed all of the stuff that we knew about, we
talked it through. And I think we oughta my arrived at
a point. And this is one of those things where,
you know, something really weird happened, yesterday for
the 49ers and Jimmy Garoppolo and you need to sleep on it.
You need to think about it. You need to talk it through, but
I think we've arrived at a very important Point here.
The leash is short now
and they have essentially told the world. They don't have
the level of confidence in trail ants that they thought they
did, right? And the door is open for Jimmy Garoppolo to
return to the field for the San Francisco 49ers.
And there are some chapters left in this book and it's
getting good or bad depending upon your perspective, in your
your point of view and your interest in all of this. But
it's
the next week and a half is going to be very interesting
and in 12 days from now, when the 49ers go to Chicago,
And in Jimmy G from Illinois. Yeah, played at one of
the directional. Well, in the Eastern Illinois. I know doors.
No, it's fascinating wide open.
Yeah, George not wide open, but a door that had been slammed
shut and barricaded, he's now walking through it. That's
right, it's cracked open for sure. I mean and and it's you
know it's it's it's yeah it's shocking.
It is I was going to say something else to it and I kind
of forgot what I was going to say there but yeah, I agree
with you in that. It definitely seems like
the leash is a little shorter now.
Now, for sure and he's been put on notice
and we'll see where it goes. But it's oh, this is what
I want to say there.
I mean what makes them more fascinating because
it's, it's again, arguably, we're talking about this and
the quarterback position
on the team that I would go.
If we just plug in like
the top 12, quarterbacks 14, quarterbacks in the game, I'd
go, they're going to the Super Bowl, they're going to
the Super Bowl. That's how good the 49ers are in my opinion,
but They don't have that guy and they're hoping that tray
can make that jump and be in that range somewhere so that's
where it's amazing to that. We're talking about one of
the best teams at football
and there's a quarterback situation that they got to deal with.
Here's what they now. Have
they have a guy who's QB one,
who is completely unknown
And they have a QB, to who's a French top, 20 guy,
and they've said that stuff. See
all the the puffery they've engaged in, whether it was BS
or real about it, we got pretty damn good backup quarterback
here. We're not just going to give them away while
the reality is, he's now back. Yeah. And he's
breathing down the neck
of trade Lance and we'll see
either Trail ants steps up
or he steps off and I think it's some level Kyle Shanahan
wants to put him under that pressure and see how he
performs. And if he doesn't, he will not be performing.
And it will be Jimmy Garoppolo.
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