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

49ers

49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo remains on the team for now, but he doesn’t appear to be part of the team’s plans. Still, GM John Lynch wasn’t tipping his hand on their plan. 

“First of all, we owe so much to him, he’s been a tremendous leader, tremendous player for us. It’s a different situation having him there but I think there’s a strong foundation in our relationship and we’ll see where it goes,” Lynch said via NFL Media’s Mike Giardi. “…if it’ll come together where he’s a part of us & if so, we’re happy to have him knowing that this is Trey’s team & knowing we will have some strength in that room. And if someone wants to come & offer us a whole lot for a really great QB, then we’ll be happy to listen…”

• The Athletic’s Matt Barrows notes 49ers S George Odum has been getting most of the first-team reps in practice and started against the Texans in the preseason in place of S Jimmie Ward, who will miss the first four games of the season with a hamstring injury. 
• 49ers RB Trey Sermon struggled as a rookie and has been speculated as being a cut candidate. But GM John Lynch says they’ve been impressed with how Sermon has improved after having an issue with bouncing too many runs: “He worked really hard and he’s had a tremendous offseason. It hasn’t shown up in the games, but throughout training camp he’s been one of our best players. So we’re excited about him.”
• 49ers LB Oren Burks‘ knee injury is not considered serious and he’s expected to play a key role in 2022 as the No. 4 linebacker and key special teamer. (Barrows)

Rams

• The Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue notes with RBs Cam Akers and Darrell Henderson nursing injuries, fifth-round RB Kyren Williams has seen a lot of work with the first string. 
• Rodrigue mentions second-year UDFA DL Michael Hoecht is working some on special teams units and has been impressing teammates. 
• She also predicts seventh-round S Russ Yeast will make the final roster, although the Rams are quite deep at safety. 
• Heavy’s Matt Lombardo, citing a league source, mentions veteran free agent G Oday Aboushi as a name to watch for if the Rams look for help on their offensive line. Aboushi spent last season with the Chargers and was having a solid year before tearing his ACL. 
• The Rams picked up an option in CB Troy Hill‘s contract that freed up $2 million in cap space. (Rodrigue)

Seahawks

Regarding the Seahawks’ quarterback competition between Geno Smith and Drew Lock, HC Pete Carroll said they will use “all the time we need” in their remaining weeks before the opener to determine the starter. 

“I’m wide open for whatever happens,” Carroll said, via Brady Henderson of ESPN. “Geno’s been the guy in the lead position the whole time, and I’ve protected that thought throughout. He’s done a really nice job. He’s been very consistent. So we’ll just see what happens. There’s two more weeks of practice, too, after this. I had a set thought on what we would do with the timeline but that got disrupted, so we’re going to use all the time we need.”

Carroll said Tuesday was an important day to observe Lock after he returned from COVID-19. 

“Today’s a really big day for me to find out what they look like today,” Carroll said. “A guy’s coming back from COVID. He made it back two days ago, did fine, made it through yesterday in all the walk-through stuff, did fine. Let’s see how he goes today and see we’ll see where it fits. But I’m not closing the book on anybody competing for their spots. We have two enormous weeks coming up: the finish of this one, [then] next week is a huge week for us and then we come back with another full week and an extra day. So we’ve got a lot of time here to work it out.”

Carroll thinks that Lock has played well this offseason and pointed to his performance in a mock game on August 6 at Lumen Field. 

“He played really well,” Carroll said. “His rhythm was good. I go back to the Lumen game, too, because that was the other one we were using for the evaluation. He was really quick with the football. I’d like to continue to see that happen. When it comes right down to it, we missed something right at the end and gave the ball up. I’d just like to see him finish the game and finish making the plays that he’s capable of making. He’s shown a lot of really good stuff. I think he had two of three drives where he scored coming out against [Pittsburgh]. But we’re in a different setup now because of last week’s game.”

• PFF Doug Kyed, citing sources, notes Lock’s illness disrupted his chances of winning the job for Week 1. But he still has a chance if he “balls out” in the preseason finale against Dallas.