The San Francisco 49er quarterback room was the key talking point of their season. Injuries struck the group at the start of the season, and ultimately, played a role in their season-ending early.
Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo both suffered season-ending injuries during the regular season. In the playoffs, rookie quarterback Brock Purdy went down with a torn UCL. In his place, veteran quarterback Josh Johnson suffered a concussion.
On Wednesday, as 49ers Head Coach Kyle Shanahan and General Manager John Lynch met with the reporters, questions were asked about the quarterback room. In particular, Kyle Shanahan was asked if his play calling is what led to the quarterbacks going down. He did not hold back in his response.
“When you ask that question, I don't understand, but I think when you look at the injuries, common sense would answer that question. How have they gotten hurt? I'm sorry Josh (Johnson) got a concussion when he hit the ground, so that's the fourth one you're talking about. I’m sorry our quarterback got his elbow bent backward on a normal drop-back pass. I’m sorry in a dropback pass someone rolled up on Jimmy’s (Garoppolo) ankle. And then we have a dual-threat quarterback who got hurt running the ball. To throw all those four in that category, no quarterbacks got hurt when we had to hand it off the whole second half. So we can look into that.” stated Shanahan.
While injuries struck the 49ers quarterbacks, Kyle Shanahan is not interested in taking the blame for that occurring.
Heading into next season, this quarterback room could look drastically different. With Garoppolo heading elsewhere, and both Purdy and Lance returning from injury, this team will have several big decisions to make.