49ers' Trey Lance insists Jimmy Garoppolo will 'have my back through it all'

One day after it was learned that San Francisco 49ers veteran quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo had agreed to a restructured contract that includes a pay cut to remain with the organization as the backup option behind 2021 rookie Trey Lance, head coach Kyle Shanahan referred to the situation as "a win-win for both sides." 

Not everybody agrees with Shanahan. As Eduardo Razo pointed out for NBC Sports Bay Area, former NFL signal-caller and current analyst Phil Simms suggested during a recent radio interview that Lance, who has only thrown 71 career regular-season passes, will be looking over his shoulder perhaps as soon as the Week 1 matchup at the Chicago Bears on Sept. 11. 

Lance tried to pour cold water over such theories when he told reporters Thursday he's "super excited just to have him in the room" when speaking about the 30-year-old who largely served as his mentor last season. 

"Nothing's changed between us," Lance explained, according to David Bonilla of 49ers WebZone. "I can say it a million times. He's been my big bro, and nothing's going to change there."

Garoppolo previously helped the 49ers reach a pair of NFC Championship games and also Super Bowl LIV, where they fell to the Kansas City Chiefs in February 2020. Fans could quickly embrace him as their favorite quarterback this fall if Lance struggles through September. 

"For me, I'm worried about what the guys in the locker room think, what I think, what the coaches think, what the guys in this organization think," the 22-year-old said of such a scenario. "Outside of that, I know there's Jimmy, there's Trey, there's all that, but this is going to be a collaborative group, and I know Jimmy's going to have my back through it all."

As for Simms, he was speaking with San Francisco sports radio station 95.7 The Game on Wednesday morning when he said he thinks the 49ers mishandled the Garoppolo situation. 

"I just can’t imagine that if I was a young starting quarterback and the job is yours and all this other stuff, but we got this guy over here throwing that’s done all this good stuff in the NFL, won a lot of games for us, he’s just going to work out. It’s just strange, and it had to be uncomfortable times," Simms remarked. 

It's worth noting that Garoppolo and Lance may not be teammates for long if a different club loses a starting quarterback to an injury before the trade deadline.