Jimmy Garoppolo not yet playing for the San Francisco 49ers might seem strange since the franchise traded a second round pick for him, but John Lynch isn't in a huge hurry to receive a return on investment from the deal.

“With all our players, we want to set them up for success,” Lynch said, via Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle. “Probably none more so than a guy we think has the opportunity to be our franchise guy.”

This does make some sense. At the same time, Jimmy Garoppolo doesn't exactly have a ton of live game reps. The 49ers would probably be best served to see him play a little bit more, as the gunslinger is set to become a free agent at the end of the season.

Basically, without getting more data from Handsome Jim, the Niners won't have enough information to make an educated decision come contract discussion. Then again, John Lynch and company do get to see him in practice, which does help a little bit.

“C.J. playing the way he played last week, it gives us an opportunity to kind of continue to really — we’re trying to accelerate [Garoppolo’s growth], but we don’t want to rush it,” Lynch said.

It will be interesting to see when — if at all — Handsome Jim gets to actually play for San Francisco. All signs, and now words, point there to being no rush. At the same time, this does seem very strange given that he could potentially walk at the season's end.