49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo: Shoulder is 'getting better and better'

San Francisco 49ers veteran quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo raised some eyebrows when he said ahead of Sunday's 37-15 win over the Carolina Panthers that he still wasn't "completely healthy" coming off the shoulder surgery he underwent in March.

Garoppolo sounded more optimistic when speaking about the subject during a Tuesday morning appearance on San Francisco sports radio station KNBR. 

"It's good. It's been good," Garoppolo remarked about the shoulder, according to David Bonilla of 49ers WebZone. "I think, every week, it's getting better and better. It's feeling good, though, right now. Just trying to get this thing rolling, get the offense all on the same page. We made some good plays on Sunday, but we lost some points out there for sure. The shoulder? It's feeling good right now."

Garoppolo re-entered the lineup after starter Trey Lance suffered a broken right ankle in Week 2 that will likely cost him the remainder of the season. The 30-year-old helped guide the 49ers to a win over the Seattle Seahawks on Sept. 18 and has thus far gone 2-1 as a starter this fall.

"You hate to see Trey get hurt like that," Garoppolo added. "I mean, that's a tough situation in itself. I've never been tossed in like that as a backup, so when you do get tossed in there, you can't be emotional. You can't be thinking about all that stuff. You've just got to go play football.

"It happens in the blink of an eye, and next thing you know, you're in third down getting smoked off the edge. It's like, 'All right, wake up. You're in the game now.' I don't know. I never really got to process that. ... Once you're in the thick of it, it's football, football, football right now, and that's the mindset you have to have. And if you don't have that mindset, you're going to lose a lot of games in this league."

Per ESPN stats, Garoppolo is currently seventh among eligible quarterbacks with a 97.8 passer rating, 21st with a 41.4 total QBR and 25th with a 60.7% completion percentage on the season. He's thrown five touchdowns and a single interception. 

The 3-2 49ers next play at the 2-3 Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.