49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan stood his ground Sunday night after his team’s 15-10 preseason victory over the Chargers in which rookie quarterback Trey Lance tossed a pair of touchdown passes. Nothing has changed in San Francisco’s cold quarterback battle per Shanahan.
His hardened stance that Jimmy Garoppolo is still atop the depth chart didn’t change. He also declined to name a Week 1 starter, which throws at least a wrinkle into the layer of intrigue under center for the 49ers heading into the final week of the preseason.
Shanahan was first asked if he’d seen anything to change his mind from early in camp when he was staunch in saying Garoppolo was their starting quarterback.
“No, I haven’t seen that,” Shanahan said. “I would love for it to be more and more each week, but I think the situation’s pretty similar right now.”
That would logically mean Garoppolo is the Week 1 starter, right?
“No, I’m not making that announcement,” he said.
This could mean a couple of things.
First, he’s legitimately waiting for the end of camp and the third preseason game against the Raiders to decide who the starter will be. Garoppolo has been and still is the leader in the clubhouse, but the door is still open for Lance to make a push in the final couple weeks before the season begins.
Then there’s the chance he’s going to start Garoppolo and he just wants to keep opposing teams guessing on who to game plan for. Perhaps he knows Lance won’t be up to par in the next couple weeks and he just wants their Week 1 opponent, the Detroit Lions, to think it might be Lance.
A third scenario is that he knows Garoppolo is going to start and doesn’t want Lance to stop competing. They could be happy with his development and keeping the window open could bring out the best in the rookie. Competing for the entire offseason may just be great for his long-term development.
While we’re reaching for explanations, we could also throw out that Lance is going to win the job, but he doesn’t want that out publicly just yet.
Chances are it’s that first scenario where Shanahan is an NFL head coach playing it close to the vest. He may have an idea of who the starter will be, but he isn’t going to announce anything until he absolutely has to. There’s nothing to gain by naming a starter for Week 1 before the final preseason game, so doing it with three weeks before the season opener doesn’t make a ton of sense.
The sentiments from Sunday night’s post-game press conference echo what he’s said all along. The starter will be the player the coaches feel gives the 49ers the best chance to win.
Shanahan said he’d eventually make the announcement whenever he feels like it. Regardless of his reasoning, and regardless of who the starter will be, chances are we won’t find out until the days leading up to the season opener on Sept. 12 in Detroit.