Jimmy Garoppolo's long journey back to full health is just weeks away from reaching its final destination.
The San Francisco 49ers quarterback has slowly but surely worked his way back from the torn left ACL that sidelined him for the bulk of the 2018 season. Garoppolo wasn't quite full-go during San Francisco's offseason program, relegated to onlooker status during 11-on-11 drills, save for one rep.
But the QB thinks that when training camp rolls around on July 26 that he will be fully involved.
"I'm sure hoping so," Garoppolo told Pro Football Talk on Tuesday. "The training staff, the coaches, we've kind of put together a plan and everything like that. We'll kind of assess the situation as we get closer to it.
"I'm good to go. Finally."
In the first year of his massive five-year extension with the 49ers, Garoppolo played just three games before tearing his ACL. The high-priced signal-caller's play was uneven, as Garoppolo completed 59.6 percent of his passes for 718 yards, five touchdowns and three picks. San Francisco went 1-2 in his three starts. Without Jimmy G, San Francisco rode the arms of C.J. Beathard and Nick Mullens to a 4-12 record and the second overall draft pick.
The return of a fully healthy Garoppolo should be enough for San Francisco to contend for a wild-card spot in the third season of the Kyle Shanahan-John Lynch five-year plan. As his health is paramount to the 49ers' success, San Francisco has taken extra care with Garoppolo during his rehab, and the QB is thankful.
"The rehab process has gone really well," Garoppolo told Pro Football Talk. "Knock on wood. We haven't had any setbacks. OTAs went about as well as I could have hoped for and now for training camp hopefully we'll be full-go with team drills and all that stuff. We're moving in the right direction. We've just got to keep going day by day and keep stacking them together. It's a long process, but we've come this far, so why stop now, right?"
The 49ers haven't yet said whether Garoppolo will be full-go and participating in 11-on-11 drills out of the gate. But if Jimmy G says he's "good to go," he's good to go.
