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Jimmy Garoppolo’s benching won’t be permanent. While his high ankle sprain did hamper his play and lead to CJ Beathard taking over in the second half of Sunday’s blowout loss to the Dolphins, head coach Kyle Shanahan said he’s hopeful his starting quarterback will be healthier and ready to go for Week 6 against the Rams.

Shanahan on Monday told reporters in his video conference that Garoppolo didn’t hurt his ankle worse, which indicates it should continue getting better in the lead up to Sunday Night Football.

“Jimmy came in good. I know he’s sore from the first half. I think his ankle’s a little bit sore and his body a little bit from some of the hits that he had, but nothing that made it worse,” Shanahan said. “It was like you expected after a game. Nothing too bad happened. We got him out of there before that did, so we’ll see how he is on Wednesday. I expect him to be at least the same, if not better. So, hopefully he can get a week of that and have no setbacks Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and hopefully we get him out there Sunday night.”

This seems to confirm the notion that Garoppolo’s benching was not purely induced by his poor performance. He was an abysmal 7-of-17 for 77 yards and two interceptions in the first half before getting sent to the sideline, but a 30-7 deficit and a shoddy pass blocking performance from the offensive line led Shanahan to keep the franchise quarterback out of harm’s way.

His quote Monday about getting Garoppolo out before his ankle got hurt worse is a sign that the head coach had his sites already set on a Week 6 divisional game vs. the Rams where Garoppolo will need to be a much better version of the player who showed up against Miami. That would’ve been impossible had he exacerbated his injury.

It’s never a good look to see a quarterback pulled from a game halfway through, but Shanahan appeared to have a good reason. Now it’s up to Garoppolo to ensure a similar situation doesn’t arise in the future.