We finally had a real development in the Jimmy Garoppolo injury saga on Wednesday. The quarterback — who is nearly two weeks removed from sustaining a Grade 3 UCL tear in his throwing thumb — was back on the field at 49ers practice throwing passes.
So, is this a legit example of Garoppolo healing up and being ready for Sunday, or is it a smokescreen to make the Los Angeles Rams think that’s the case?
49ers beat writer Matt Maiocco thinks it’s somewhat legit, and said that Garoppolo throwing on Wednesday has made him believe that Jimmy G playing on Sunday is now a possibility.
“I would say going into yesterday it was like ‘he’s not playing,’” Maiocco said on KNBR. “Then after seeing him throw it around a little bit — and it’s not practice it’s just the warm ups that we are out there for — but that’s a pretty elaborate ploy if they somehow got his hand to the point where ‘hey let’s just go out there and throw, just to put on a show.’ But if he’s throwing that well, to the untrained eye I couldn’t tell any difference from how Jimmy was throwing pre-injury, to how he threw yesterday.
“I do believe that if Jimmy Garoppolo is functioning, and there is not that much of a drop off from non-ligament-in-his-thumb Jimmy to healthy Jimmy, then Jimmy Garoppolo will play.”
It would make sense to play a competent Garoppolo over Lance, and not just for the standard reason that he’s more experienced and has had a ton of success in the 49ers’ system. Shanahan and the 49ers have owned the Rams with Garoppolo at QB. Jimmy G is 5-0 vs. the Rams including a 31-10 beatdown earlier this season when he posted a 141.7 QB rating.
Maiocco says Thursday will likely determine Jimmy’s status for the game.
“Today is the big day. Today being the big practice day that they have, if he can make it through today and feeling good tomorrow, he doesn’t really have to do much tomorrow, he doesn’t really have to do much on Saturday, and they can kind of save the throws he has left in him for Sunday afternoon.”
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