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Sure, the 49ers still have a season to finish and the playoffs are still, at least literally speaking, in play. But at this juncture, there’s one looming question which figures to define the John Lynch-Kyle Shanahan legacy:
Is it time for a changing of the guard at quarterback?
Lynch joined KNBR on Friday and attempted to answer that question, you know, by not answering the question. Lynch obviously will not give away how the 49ers view the quarterback position, but he acknowledged the organization is scouting quarterbacks and Jimmy Garoppolo has not played up to par.
“I think the elephant in the room, everyone wants to know about Jimmy,” Lynch said. “We’re a better football team when he’s out there. We win a lot of games when he’s out there, we’ve struggled to win without him. People can try and pick his game apart.
“I do believe a lot of this year, Jimmy probably hasn’t played up to his standard. I think a lot of that, he’s been somewhat compromised with his health since he had that high ankle in the New York Jets game. Think about prior to the ankle injury in that game, I believe he was 12-of-14, he was our player of the game. We have a lot of belief in Jimmy.”
That belief might be genuine. It might be lip service. Maybe it’s a bit of both. Whatever your view is, San Francisco sent their vice president of player personnel Adam Peters out to Boise State to watch BYU quarterback Zach Wilson. Wilson put on a show (granted he wasn’t oft-pressured and hasn’t been, since he plays in an FBS Independent school, and gets a lot of Mountain West competition), finishing 22-of-28 with 360 yards, three touchdowns and one rushing touchdown.
“Adam did go out to Boise State to watch a Boise State-BYU game,” Lynch said. “That seemed to have garnered a lot of attention. We’re doing our jobs. You prepare for everything… As a scouting staff, we’re always going to be thorough, we’re always going to work our tail off to scout all the players and be prepared for anything.”
Listen to the full interview below.
