The San Francisco 49ers will have to play the rest of the season without starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, as an MRI confirmed on Monday that he has suffered a torn ACL in his left knee.
Garoppolo was hurt late in Sunday’s 38-27 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, in what appeared to be a non-contact injury.
Late Scramble Leads to Injury
With about 5:35 remaining in the game, Garoppolo scrambled on a third-and-goal play from the Chiefs’ 20-yard line. Running down the sideline, Garoppolo attempted to cut back towards the field, and his knee appeared to buckle just before he was hit by Kansas City safety Steve Nelson around the 7-yard line.
“It’s very unfortunate, I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters after the game. “We were down, disappointed about it because we were looking forward to playing with Jimmy this year and going through the good and the bad that would happen knowing that he would benefit from all of it. Now we don’t get to do that.”
It is expected that Garoppolo’s recovery will take about nine months. That would suggest that the quarterback would be able to return to football activities sometime early next summer. However, Shanahan said that the team hopes Garoppolo will be able to participate from the start of offseason training, if only in a limited manner.
The injury will require surgery. That is expected to happen sometime in the next week or two, after the swelling around the knee subsides.
Garoppolo Pays for Aggressive Play
While the injury appeared to take place before the hit from Nelson, Garoppolo did try to make a hard cut back into the field rather than safely head for the sidelines, a decision that Kansas City linebacker Justin Houston criticized after the game.
“That was his fault,” Houston told PFT Live. “I pray he’s not hurt and it’s nothing serious, but as a quarterback, you should step out of bounds…you’ve got to be smart, think about your team.”
While Shanahan agreed that his quarterback will probably make safer decisions in the future, he also praised Garoppolo’s competitiveness.
“Just turn on the TV Sunday and you’re going to watch 15 players by quarterbacks jumping over people, not getting out of bounds, doing a little extra to move the chains,” Shanahan said.
The 27-year-old Garoppolo was traded to the 49ers from the New England Patriots last season in exchange for a second-round draft pick. After going 5-0 as a starter for San Francisco last season, the 49ers signed him to a five-year, $137.5 million contract extension.
In Garoppolo’s absence, the 49ers will turn to CJ Beathard, a second-year quarterback out of Iowa. Beathard started five games for San Francisco last year, going 1-4 during that stint. While the Niners will bring in other quarterbacks for workouts, Shanahan said there was no discussion of potentially bringing back former San Francisco star Colin Kaepernick.
Garoppolo wasn’t the only NFL player to be sidelined by an ACL tear on Sunday. Miami Dolphins defensive end William Hayes suffered a similar injury during his team’s 28-20 win over the Oakland Raiders. Miami coach Adam Gase blamed the injury on new rules designed to protect quarterbacks, as Hayes was hurt while attempting to contort himself to avoid putting his body weight on Raiders quarterback Derek Carr.