Jimmy Garoppolo suffered what was initially thought to be a season-ending broken foot on Sunday against the Miami Dolphins. The 49ers assumed he would need to undergo surgery with an estimated six-month recovery time.
On Tuesday, ESPN's Adam Schefter broke the news that doctors had an update on the prognosis. Garoppolo would not require season-ending surgery, and the quarterback might be able to return in seven to eight weeks. That timeline puts a potential return at some point during the playoffs.
"It's not a Lisfranc," Shanahan told reporters. "They don't have to do surgery on it. Still going to be a big recovery, but much less than what we anticipated, which is awesome news for him. In the offseason, he'll be good to go right away, so it won't be like last year."
The coach confirmed that Garoppolo didn't sustain any ligament damage. So what about a return for the upcoming postseason?
"Really, there's that way outside chance late in the playoffs or something like that," Shanahan admitted, "but it's just an outside chance. I'm not real optimistic about that, but you never rule it out."
So it looks like it might still be rookie Brock Purdy for all of San Francisco's remaining games, regular season and postseason.
The 49ers haven't decided whether they would place Garoppolo on the injured reserve list. The team can only open windows for a return from injured reserve for two more players. It might be telling if Garoppolo ended up on the team's injured reserve list.
"Most likely, even if that did happen, he wouldn't be able to come back for that, so we'll see how these IR decisions play out over the next couple of weeks," Shanahan said.
The coach noted that the seven to eight week timeline was a best-case scenario and didn't necessarily mean Garoppolo would be ready to step back on the football field after that.
"Not to play football," Shanahan said. "It's seven to eight weeks, but to heal. ... I know it's a serious injury that will most likely keep him out for the year, and I know it was really good news that there was no ligament damage or anything, so he'll be fine once the broken foot heals."