While the San Francisco 49ers do not appear to be close to trading or cutting Jimmy Garoppolo, they expect Trey Lance to eventually start.

"That's why we looked into trading Jimmy, because we obviously believe that Trey can be a starter and we're ready to do that," Kyle Shanahan said. "But if we can't upgrade our team in another way, we're not just going to get rid of a good quarterback because we have other quarterbacks on the roster. Quarterbacks are really hard to come by. Some teams don't have any at all, and the fact that we have three that we're happy with, that is a good thing.

"We brought Trey here to be that eventually, and I think that will be sooner than later, but when Jimmy gets his surgery and we can't upgrade our team by getting some good picks until people feel good about that [surgery], I'm all right with that. We're not just getting rid of him to get rid of him. Jimmy is a good player that we all really like as a person and as a teammate, and we're going to wait to see whatever helps the Niners the most."

There is a question of whether the presence of Garoppolo could stunt the development of Lance. 

"You've got to make sure that you're not hindering his development," Shanahan said. "Trey's working his tail off. He knows how I feel about him. He knows what our expectations are for him. And I think he's got a lot of respect for Jimmy. But the situation is clear. We were trying to make a move to add some draft picks ... and we were pretty close to it. And then Jimmy ended up getting the surgery, which changes things.

"I think Trey will understand all that. I haven't had to talk to him about it. But I think it makes sense for all these guys. Trey's not an insecure guy. I think the situation makes sense. There's nothing sneaky going on about it. And he's confident. He's going to come in and focus on playing football. And focus on beating out whoever he has to, whether it's [Garoppolo], whether it's Nate [Sudfeld]. He's going to come in and be the best he can be."