• The 49ers will be in an interesting spot coming out of the 2022 season depending on how things go the rest of the way with Jimmy Garoppolo at quarterback. The recovery timeline for Lance is four to six months. And there is some good news here, news that was evident by the fact that Lance hung out with Garoppolo and other teammates after the game in the practice room and didn’t have to undergo surgery until Monday. In short, if this was an “open” ankle fracture (what was known in the medical community as a compound fracture, where the bone breaks through the skin), emergency surgery would be needed and recovery would be more complicated. This, in fact, is the rebound Dak Prescott faced two years ago. So the 49ers can reasonably expect to see Lance back and on the move in the spring. The question would be what their room would look like then. Garoppolo has a no-tag provision in his revised contract, meaning there’s nothing the Niners can do to restrict him from leaving after the season. And that means, in all likelihood, Garoppolo is gone after this year and San Francisco is left with a rehabilitated Lance and Brock Purdy on the roster. Tony Avelar/AP And the thing about it? Well, we just don’t have much information on where Lance is as a player right now. Last year, his two starts came with an injured index finger on his hand. This year, his first start came in a monsoon in Chicago, and his second start Sunday he went 16 innings and walked just three times. That means he’ll go into his third year as a pro having taken 262 total snaps, four or five games worth. Not much to go on, of course. But looking at the circumstances right now, chances are that’s what the Niners are working with. • As for Garoppolo, his contract status will obviously be affected. His base salary for the year is $6.5 million. There’s another $500,000 in per-game roster bonuses in there, too — he only gets it for being on the game-day roster each week (so he’s already collected two installments). From there, here are the incentives tied to his playing time:

  1. $250,000 for each game in which he plays 50% of the offensive snaps, with another $100,000 if the Niners win such a game (so he’ll get $350,000 for, say, Sunday’s win over Seattle after playing over of half the snaps and won).
  2. $500,000 if he plays 50% of the snaps in a playoff game.
  3. $500,000 if he plays $50% of the snaps in the conference title game and another $500,000 if he plays half the snaps and wins.
  4. $1 million if he plays 50% of the snaps in the Super Bowl. Now, the good thing for the Niners is because Garoppolo started 15 games last year and reached the NFC title game, most of those incentives are labeled “likely to be earned” and already count against this year’s cap — so there won’t be any impact on team cap for 2023, when Nick Bosa’s extension will be part of the equation. But from a cash perspective, this whole ordeal won’t come cheap for the Niners. That said, with a championship roster in place, I think everyone there would tell you that, for that kind of insurance, with a guy who has led the team to the conference title game two of the last three years, it should be worth it every cent Especially considering that, as it stands now, Garoppolo is probably the better quarterback (the Niners expected that to change as the year went on and Lance gained more experience). • I thought Jared Goff had an interesting answer when I asked him if he was motivated by people who think he was, well, everything as a long-term starting quarterback in the league after the Rams cut him 20 months ago. “I really try to be intrinsically motivated. that’s the easiest way to do it because of who I am,” Goff told me. “I really don’t worry about what other people say. But yeah, definitely, I think after last year, mostly just the losses, how many games we lost, that puts a stamp on you and that puts you OK, I never want to go through that again. And I’m the general [of] this team. I’m the leader, and it falls on me. “And I don’t take it lightly. And I think this year has been fun for me to really be able to come up with an offense that I’m really comfortable with. I am grateful for these coaches and these players. So yeah, it definitely drives you a little bit, but at the same time I definitely motivated myself, with or without what other people think.” • While we were there, I asked Joe Flacco if he still sees himself as capable of being a franchise quarterback—while those days may seem long gone, it’s interesting that the guy he was drafted with in 2008, Matt Ryan, remains an established starter. The answer was logical, and perfect Flacco. “Of course, of course,” Flacco said. “I mean, listen, you don’t know how many opportunities you’re going to get to do it and you don’t know how many games like this you’re going to play in. I’ve said it before: I wouldn’t be playing this game if I didn’t still feel like I had the ability to do whatever I wanted to do on the football field.” And as for the fact that he’ll have to hand the reins back to Zach Wilson in a few weeks? “I’m just grateful for the opportunity to have the opportunity to get our team in a good position the first two weeks,” Flacco said. “I don’t pay attention to any of that or do anything else. I would be hurting myself, and more importantly, I would be hurting our team. The most important thing for me is to go out there and do my job and, like I said, put us in a position to win football games.” You can’t say he didn’t do that on Sunday. • My friend Ian Rapoport at the NFL Network reported Sunday that Tom Brady will have Wednesdays off this season as maintenance days. Bucs coach Todd Bowles confirmed that on Monday, saying it’s part of a broader management plan for all of his older guys. First of all, an important point – I’m told the plan is to have Brady in the building, just not practicing, on Wednesdays, which means he’ll be there to set up the game plan with all the other vets having days to rest bodies. And I can also say that Bowles is definitely not pulling this thing out of thin air. He and I talked about it a few weeks ago, and it’s actually a measure based on how last year ended for the team. “Our thing is how we finished the season,” Bowles told me. “And when you don’t go as far as you did last season, where we won the Super Bowl, you try to tweak some things. We were exhausted at the end of the year. After the Super Bowl year, we had a lot of people hurt during the year, so even though we won 13 games, we were mixed and matched all year. So health was a big thing. we tried to relax some of the veterans days. “And Bruce did too, but we did more because we didn’t go as far. And they took better care of their bodies. But I was giving the guys even longer days than we were in the past and making sure when the heat index got up to a certain amount, certain guys could cut certain reps. I was really watching it from a health perspective.” Chris O’Meara/AP Bowles then continued with his global view of these things. “Common sense is important, because I know how much we need these kids during the year,” he said. “And that subtle part of it, just being an ex-player, you can see who’s doing what, when they’re tired, when they’re not. I’m a pretty good observer—Bruce told me so. My point is, what can we do better? Not to take away the things we did great, but to add to them and adjust some things to what we can do better, because we didn’t win the whole thing.” So really, Bowles is prioritizing having guys in the right place physically and mentally when fall turns to winter, and the Bucks are riding to win a second title in three years. And having his quarterback right-handed is, obviously, a big part of that. • One more Bucs thing—GM Jason Licht has regularly watched games from the sidelines over the years. So while a non-coaching staff like Bruce Arians being on the field might be unusual for some teams, it really isn’t for Tampa (the COVID-19 restrictions may have temporarily affected that, but those are gone now ). • I thought this was an interesting tidbit, one I brought up on Sunday morning TV: The Steelers had senior defensive assistant Brian Flores sit in on offensive meetings last week and consult with coordinator Matt Canada as Canada draws up the game plan team’s. It makes sense, of course, because of Flores’ institutional knowledge of the Patriots’ defense, and it also reflects the level at which Flores contributes in Pittsburgh. My understanding is that his role is very similar to Teryl Austin’s last year, before Keith Butler retired and Austin took over as coordinator. Flores is kind of an unusual helper on that side of the ball and works extensively with the off-ball players. He helped the team get more from former champion Devin Bush, integrate veteran Myles Jack and develop promising rookie Mark Robinson. So his role has been broad and reflects the diversity of experience Flores has as a former coach. Those in the building are hoping he’ll be back to do it too, because they’ve seen how good he’s been over the last eight months. I hope he also learned from the experience in Miami the same way, say, former colleague Josh McDaniels learned from his failures in Denver. • Some people have wondered why tonight’s MNF lineup isn’t a traditional doubleheader – Eagles-Vikings will square off when Bills-Titans go to…