Santa Clara – 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said earlier this week he was hopeful for the return of his starting quarterback. Today he announced he will start Week 5 when San Francisco hosts the Miami Dolphins this Sunday.
Garoppolo missed two weeks with a high ankle sprain. He was injured during the first quarter against the New York Jets in Week 2. Garoppolo’s return to practice this week was determined on his performance and Shanahan gave the thumbs up that he was a go for Sunday.
“He did a good job,” said Shanahan. “Each day he got better. Never felt too sore the next day. So, we needed to hear that today and see him out there today and we feel good to go and he’ll be starting Sunday.”
Shanahan also mentioned that C.J. Beathard will now be the number 2 quarterback to back up Garoppolo this week. Nick Mullens has been demoted to number 3. Mullens struggled in last weeks game and was replaced by Beathard late in the fourth.
“He didn’t have his best game,” Shanahan explained. “C.J. has been there before, Jimmy has been there before. Nick just had a rough game and I think he played better than it looked. It’s never as bad as it seems, but that’s kind of the life of a backup. C.J., I thought, did some real good things for us.”
Garoppolo was in good spirits and seemed excited to be back on the field. At the start of the season Garoppolo was without many of his offensive pieces due to injuries. This Sunday he’ll have majority of his offense back.
“I’ve had normal ankle sprains, never had a high ankle sprain,” said Garoppolo. “So, this was a first and I kind of just thought it was going to be like a normal ankle sprain that I could come back and just trying to get myself mentally prepared each week. So, I was kind of talking to myself, telling myself, ‘Hey, I could play this week. I’ll be all right.’ And just, it took a little time, but I’m glad to be back out there with the guys. It feels great.
It’s exciting to get a group out there that you envision and just sort of really stack days together. Stack days of the same group going out there, just getting the chemistry down and the communication part of it. And so, whenever we could get guys healthy and get guys back, it always is going to help everyone.”
Raheem Mostert is listed as questionable for this Sunday. Mostert has been out since Week 2 with a sprained right knee. Deebo Samuel has been out for the past few days with an illness and is also questionable for Sunday. Shanahan said Samuel joined Zoom calls but must complete proper protocols to rejoin the team.
“Deebo is good,” Shanahan said. “He says he has no symptoms. He’s feeling great, so he’s got one more test to pass. I think he did it today. We’ll get the results tomorrow on that and then he should be allowed back in the building.”
*Photo by 49ers
