NFC Notes: Jimmy Garoppolo, 49ers, Rams, Panthers

49ers

49ers’ HC Kyle Shanahan told the media that while QB Jimmy Garoppolo has a chance to return in 2022, the team is making it clear that QB Trey Lance is their quarterback of the future.

“There’s a chance for anything, but I think we’ve made it pretty clear that Trey is our guy of the future, whenever that will happen,” Shanahan said, via Pro Football Talk. “But it’s also nothing against Jimmy that we took him, but we do think Trey is our guy of the future. Like I’ve said, I think it’ll be really hard, if Jimmy is on it, for him to beat him out right away. So it’s kind of going like that right now, and we’re not thinking much past that.”

Rams

• Rams HC Sean McVay said OLB Leonard Floyd missed practice with a non-Covid illness that is unrelated to him being in concussion protocol. (Jourdan Rodrigue)
• McVay believes WR Odell Beckham Jr. will be more involved in the offense this week: “We expect to see a lot of him.” (Lindsey Thiry)

Panthers

Panthers QB Cam Newton has played exceptionally well in his two games since returning to Carolina. However, HC Matt Rhule is focused on this season and isn’t ready to commit to any long-term plans that involve Newton as the quarterback of the future.

“We’re right where we are, simple as that,” he said before Carolina’s Week 11 loss to Washington, via SI’s Albert Breer. “We legitimately — I know this is going to sound like coach-talk, but it’s not — we’re gonna do whatever it takes to win this game against Washington to get to a winning record. The record before I got here was 5–11. Our record last year was 5–11. Getting to six wins for us would be huge, winning this one game would be huge. So we have (QB) P.J. Walker, P.J. went 22-for-29 last week, he was excellent. Cam came in, he played eight plays, he had two touchdowns in eight plays, he was excellent. So we’re only going to worry about that.…

“You make plans and God laughs. All of a sudden, you’re sitting there, saying we’re set at this position, a guy gets hurt. So we’re only focused on this week, trying to get Cam ready to play, get P.J. ready to play, and then Matt Barkley’s been awesome in the room, so getting him ready to play, and we’ll work back from there. And then we’ll look and see who’s healthy next week and what we have to do to beat Miami and get to the bye week. And then we’ll have five weeks left to try and go be a good team.”