The San Francisco 49ers will make every effort to make Jimmy Garoppolo their quarterback over the long-term.

"Look, we want Jimmy to be a Niner for a long, long time, and that process is going to take place here and we're eager to get that done, to have the opportunity," John Lynch said in his season-ending news conference on Tuesday.

Garoppolo is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in March, but the 49ers would prefer to sign him to an extension before he hits the open market.

"I think one thing that we really believe is that those things should take place between us and his representatives, not occur and transpire in the public," Lynch said. "That's the way we're going to treat that. But you have our assurances and the fans do that we'd like nothing more than to make him a Niner for a long, long time."