Kyle Shanahan insisted he would not be making a "farewell statement" to Jimmy Garoppolo in the wake of the San Francisco 49ers' defeat to the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship game.
The Rams rallied to win 20-17 on Sunday at SoFi Stadium to seal progress to the Super Bowl, where they will face the Cincinnati Bengals at the same venue on February 13.
Los Angeles quarterback Matthew Stafford starred on the one-year anniversary of his trade to the Rams, leading three straight scoring drives to erase a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter, while Cooper Kupp caught two touchdown passes.
Aaron Donald's defensive work proved crucial in pressuring Garoppolo, who had a late, desperate throw intercepted by Travin Howard as the Rams became the first team fighting for a place at the Super Bowl to trail by double digits heading into the fourth quarter to then win a game.
Speculation is swirling over Garoppolo's future. The 30-year-old joined San Francisco for a record-breaking, $137.5million deal in 2017, and led them to the Super Bowl two years ago.
San Francisco are 35-16 when Garoppolo starts and 8-31 when he does not, yet it seems that the 49ers may well part ways with the quarterback, who has a year left to run on his deal. They traded up to three in last year's draft to bring in Trey Lance, who threw for 603 yards and five touchdowns across six appearances this season.
Shanahan, however, refused to confirm that Garoppolo had played his last game for the Niners.
"I love Jimmy," Shanahan said in his post-game news conference.
"I'm not going to sit here and make a farewell statement or anything right now. It's the last stuff on my mind. Jimmy has battled his a** off.
"He battled today. He did some unbelievable things today. I love coaching Jimmy."
Garoppolo completed 301 of his 441 passes in the regular season, for a completion rate of 68.3, ranking him sixth in the league. His 8.64 yards per pass attempt ranked second.
He completed 16 of his 30 passes on Sunday (a completion percentage of 53.3) for 232 yards and two touchdowns, though the sole interception proved crucial.
"[The emotions] hit pretty hard in the locker room," Garoppolo said.
"I think these next couple of days it will really start to settle in a little bit. Emotions are high after a game win or loss, and it's one of those things you've got to be glad it happened, smile from it, and think about the good things.
"We'll see what happens in these next couple days, weeks, whatever, but I love this team. Just the fight and the battle in this team throughout the entire year has been really impressive. I love those guys.
"I've got no regrets from this year."