NFC Notes; Jimmy Garoppolo, 49ers, Matthew Stafford, Rams, Seahawks

49ers

49ers’ owner Jed York said that they would be “happy” to keep QB Jimmy Garoppolo for the 2022 season given you “can’t have enough good quarterbacks.”

“I’ve said this before, you can’t have enough good quarterbacks and good football players,” York said, via Tim Kawakami of The Athletic. “I’m not going to get into roster discussions and what John and Kyle want to do. But I will support them in sort of anything that they want to make this team as good as it can possibly be. I watched it with Joe (Montana) and Steve (Young) and I realize the salary cap is different today than having no salary cap. But we’ve said it before: We’re happy to keep Jimmy. We’re happy to have him on the roster. And if that’s the case, then that’s the case.”

York is comfortable with the condition of San Francisco under HC Kyle Shanahan and GM John Lynch. 

“I feel good. But I think it starts with John and Kyle. I have so much respect (for) those guys and so much confidence in what they’ve been able to help build,” York said. “I think players are taking ownership; you have great leaders out there, from Trent (Williams) to George (Kittle) to Deebo (Samuel) to Fred (Warner), there’s so many guys that I think you can rely on. I have a really good feeling about the team. There’s a good energy. I think you can sense it when you’re out there. But as talented as people can think we are, there are so many talented teams. Just in our division, you’ve got the Rams who won the Super Bowl last year. We had three really good battles with them last year and we’ll get at least two more shots this year. That’s a team you obviously have to go after first.”

Rams

Rams QB Matthew Stafford is optimistic about his progress relative to his elbow injury and believes he is trending in the right direction.

“I’m just going out there, doing my work, trusting the process that we have. I know that I’m able to go out there and function at a high level right now,” Stafford said, via Rams Wire. “Whatever it feels like, hopefully it continues to keep getting better as it has, but I know that functionally, I feel like I can do everything I need to do. So, just trying to continue on that road.”

Rams HC Sean McVay doesn’t believe there’s any reason to be concerned about Stafford. Stafford was able to throw about 75 passes with the first-team offense, which was encouraging to the team’s staff.

“I didn’t see any reason to be concerned,” McVay said. “I think ideally, you’d like him to be totally pain-free, but he’s better equipped to be able to answer those questions. But I know this, based on evaluating him throwing the football, he looked like the Matthew that I know, and that’s the most important thing. And that was kind of the goal all along. There was never a time where it was like, I’m not able to practice. It was just, let’s be smart with a guy that’s accumulated as much experience and is so sharp and does such a great job taking care of himself.”

McVay added that Stafford was able to make all the throws required of him.

“All different types of throws and looked really good, and he felt good today, which I think is a really positive step in the right direction,” McVay said.

Seahawks

Seahawks HC Pete Carroll still believes that WR J.J. Arcega-Whiteside has potential despite things not working out with the Eagles.

“This is a guy we really liked coming out,” Carroll said, via Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times. “He’s an aggressive catcher. A contested catch guy is what we really liked about him, so strong and physical. He made a lot of big plays. He was a go-to guy in the program at Stanford. He’s unique. He’s a big strong kid. He was 225 [pounds] coming out and he’s like 230 now. He was playing some tight end for them, which we like all of that, that diversity. I’m always looking for unique guys and this guy brings something possibly unique.”

• Seahawks HC Pete Carroll said QB Drew Lock is “really sick” after testing positive for COVID-19: “He’s really sick. He’s sick. I think it was this morning or something I talked to him. It hit him pretty hard.” (Curtis Crabtree)