QB Jimmy Garoppolo Press Conference

QB Jimmy Garoppolo

Press Conference – October 6, 2021

San Francisco 49ers

You sounded pretty pessimistic about, you know, even getting back in the next few weeks. Have you become more optimistic as the days have passed?

“Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I think the initial reaction, you’re obviously bummed about it and everything, but yeah, just pulled the calf a little bit. It’s nothing too serious and just taking it day by day at this point.”

I thought it was a contusion?

“I tweaked the muscle, whatever. I mean, whatever word you want to use for it.”

A bruise or a strain?

“I strained it a little bit.”

Did it happen on that Seattle Seahawks DL Kerry Hyder Jr. play where Kerry came around and did he step on the back of your foot?

“Yeah, it was kind of a freak play. I was kind of jumping back after I threw it to avoid the pressure in front of me and he kind of hit me at the same time. So just an unfortunate situation, but it’s not terrible right now.”

A kick or did he sort of step on you?

“No, it was like his knee actually was in the back of my calf while I was pushing off the ground. So just kind of got caught in an awkward position.”

With you not practicing today, what does that do in terms of your availability for Sunday and preparation?

“It doesn’t really change anything. I think mentally I feel pretty good, just with the game plan, everything, all the install we just put in. But you know, physically hopefully get out there tomorrow and we’ll take it day by day, like I said, and see where this calf gets.”

Is there a day where you feel like, okay come I don’t know, Saturday, I won’t be able to go that you’ll know or will you take it up to game time?

“I mean, it could go up to game time. We’ve done it before up to game time. And it’s really just about getting the mental reps while I can out there today, see where I’m at tomorrow and everything, but yeah, just I don’t want to put anything in stone yet.”

When you say you’ve done it before, is that Miami last year?

“Yeah, I mean just in the past, yeah.”

Will you still go through walk through?

“I’m out there for it. Our walk through kind of turns into a jog through, so they held me out of it today.”

The plan for QB Trey Lance is probably going to be a little bit different than if it was you. Do you have to come up with like two different game plans to prepare for this?

“Fortunately I don’t game plan. But no, the coaches, yeah, they do a great job with that stuff. Just getting us ready, whatever we’ve got to do we’ll go out there and perform it. For us it’s just physically getting ready and mentally processing whatever they give us.”

If you were to play this weekend would there be a possibility that you could be 100-percent healthy or would you be battling through it at that point if you did play?

“Battling through it probably. We’ll take it, like I said, day by day, but I mean, it hurts, but it is what it is at this point.”

In the early part of this week, how much do you kind of worry about yourself and get yourself right and also I’m sure that Trey if thrown out there, he’s going to need your support and he’s going to need your set of eyes and your everything? How do you do that?

“It’s kind of the balancing act. I’ve been doing it a little bit today, just if Trey has any questions, anything that just I’ve ran in the past or that he hasn’t ran helping him out any way with that. But like I said, I’m preparing to play, I’m mentally getting ready for that. So, we’ll see where we’re at come Sunday.”

How do you feel mentally? After the game, understandably you seemed down. I’m just wondering how you’re doing now?

“I’m good. Yeah. After the, obviously just upset after the game, you know, the whole circumstance. But I feel pretty good right now. Get this game plan down mentally, just keep it moving. It is a big week for us.”

I know you weren’t necessarily playing last time you guys were in Arizona for that long stretch, but you were down there that whole time, right? What was that experience like for you and what did maybe you take away from it in terms of things that could help you or help the team moving forward?

“From that experience? It made us a lot closer, I’ll tell you that. Just, the whole team being stuck in a hotel for a month or so, whatever it was it’s a lot of time spent together. And so you learn a lot about guys that think, you know, we’ve had a couple new guys come in this week and I’ve just heard comments from them just how close our team is, you know, the friendships, it’s not like that on every team. So I think it’s something that you’ve got to cherish while you’ve got it.”

It’s only Week 5, but is there a sense of urgency coming off the two losses?

“There’s always a sense of urgency. I think in the NFL, there’s a lot of season left to play, but every week, if you don’t have a sense of urgency, you’ve got no chance out there. So I think that’s one thing that we do well here. We come out to practice with the right mindset, we’ve got good leaders on this team to set the tone and I think we keep doing that we’ll be all right.”