QB Jimmy Garoppolo Press Conference

QB Jimmy Garoppolo

Press Conference – October 20, 2021

San Francisco 49ers

How’s the calf?

“Feeling good. Feel real good. Go out there, test it out a little bit, but overall feeling like it’s in the right spot.”

We saw you warming up in Arizona very gingerly, cautiously. Was it an issue of pushing off that leg? Was that the problem?

“Yeah, pushing off of it, just those quick, little jerky movements, I guess you could say. Yeah, just didn’t want to push it too much last week, but I think during the Bye week we’ve really made some big strides, so I’m happy with where it’s at.”

How did you spend the Bye week?

“I was here getting this calf right. Really not much off time, but you know, it’s that time of year, time to grind.”

Is there a chance it’ll be 100-percent healthy this weekend?

“I’m hoping, yeah. I mean, it’ll get better every day I think, test it out on the field, see what we could do and everything. But you know, right now it feels great.”

You indicated after that game you were hoping to only miss a couple games. Obviously you’re not a doctor, you misdiagnosed yourself, but what was it about the injury that made you feel like it was more severe than maybe what it was?

“It was about what, I mean, yeah a couple of weeks thing was a little aggressive, came out the gate with that. But yeah, I don’t know, I’ve done it before in the past similar injuries to that. So it was I just kind of knew my body and knew it was going to take a couple of weeks. It was just a little pull. It wasn’t anything too serious.”

Here’s another self-diagnosis not body-wise, but just offensive-wise, what do you think that you guys need to do to be the kind of offensive you want to be?

“Well, I think when we’re at our best is when we can get into a rhythm. I think when the run game, passing game are working together, get a couple easy ones, get the play-action game working, I think when all of those things are clicking and we can get into a rhythm that’s when we’re at our best. Get the first, first down and really get into a drive, get things rolling. But when we go three-and-out and we get off the field quick, it just puts our whole team in a bad situation. You know, that’s the complementary football that we’ve played in the past here. That’s when we play our best and when we kind of lap teams and turn one score into two real quick. I think if we can get back to that we’ll be in a good spot.”

The running game has changed without TE George Kittle out there and without RB Raheem Mostert and basically rookies at running back, how has that changed the running game?

“Not tremendously. I mean, obviously you want your starting guys out there, but we’re pretty deep right now. And I like the guys that we’ve got rolling. Hopefully we get those other guys that are injured back, but it doesn’t matter who we have out there. It’s pretty consistent I would say for the most part, with a little tweak here or there, but it’s about us going out and executing at this point.”

You’ve lost three in a row and coming off the Bye week, how much does this feel like a must-win game, at least as it could at this point in the season?

“They’re all big games. I mean, going forward every game is a big game and we’re treating it as that way this week. It will be a fun atmosphere Sunday night here and get the Faithful rolling again and give them something to cheer about. But like I said, every game is a big game going forward now.”

Going into the Bye, head coach Kyle Shanahan joked that you and QB Trey Lance would be spending the Bye week together rehabbing. Was that the case? Were you on the same rehab schedules with the trainers and then did you do anything aside from, you know, physical rehab? Did you spend time in the playbook or anything like that with him?

“Not together, no. Our rehab processes are kind of in different spots, I guess you’d say. But yeah, we were here at the same time putting in the work and everything, but physically kind of on different pages, I guess.”

How would you describe the presence Indianapolis Colts DT DeForest Buckner had in the locker room and as a captain?

“DeFo was a great locker room guy, great teammate, great friend. Just a really great individual. He really was. I can remember when I first got here, DeFo was one of the first guys to come up to me and I knew his name and everything, but didn’t really know him personally. He was very welcoming. I mean, a guy of his stature, you know, he has a presence about him. And so that’s the tough part of the business to see guys go like that, but I’ve been on both sides of it and seen it. So it’ll be cool to see him, but yeah, it’s business I guess.”