49ers roster: 4 biggest losers from first week of training camp

No. 1 player: Jimmy Garoppolo, Quarterback

Jimmy Garoppolo is one of the few exceptions to most players who have had a bad first week in training camp.

He’s been alright, even good at times, during the practices even though he’s still been susceptible to the mental struggles we’ve seen throughout his career. Nonetheless, he hasn’t been awful.

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The issue for Garoppolo is he needs to be better than just “not awful.”

Why? Because for the first time since arriving at San Francisco, he has a legitimate challenger to dethrone him as the starter in Trey Lance, and Lance has been better than “not awful.”

Lance has been impressive and has been picking up the offense faster than anyone could have dreamed possible. The 49ers are no longer relying on Garoppolo as they prepare to hand over the keys to the franchise to Lance, and as a result, Garoppolo could be in trouble.

It won’t happen overnight. The 49ers are determined to squeeze every drop of trade value possible out of Garoppolo when the time is right, and as of writing this, the starting quarterback is Garoppolo, and make no mistake about that.

But if Lance continues to move upwards, then the 49ers just may need to rethink that philosophy.