Managing expectations isn’t usually one of the top tasks for NFL teams coming off six-win seasons.

Then again Cheap Joe Namath Jersey , no team has ever gotten to that underwhelming total with a season-ending, five-game winning streak fueled by the midseason acquisition of a quarterback who has shown signs of becoming one of the league’s most promising passers.

That’s exactly the situation the San Francisco 49ers find themselves in as they held their first training camp practice Thursday led by Jimmy Garoppolo and his $137.5 million contract.

”If our guys make a living just reading and listening to talk radio and stuff, that stuff could mess you up,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. ”I am aware that people have talked highly about us and that’s what comes with the territory when you win your last five games after starting so bad. I mean, we all know that doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t.”

The 49ers were far from promising at the start of Shanahan’s first season as coach, losing their first nine games for the worst start in franchise history. That vibe began to change after San Francisco dealt a second-round pick to New England for Garoppolo after the eighth loss and things really began to change once Garoppolo was able to get on the field.

He threw a late garbage-time touchdown in a loss to Seattle that dropped the Niners to 1-10 and then took over as starter from rookie C.J. Beathard the following week. San Francisco didn’t lose again last season, posting the best record ever for an NFL team that lost its first nine games.

But there is little carry-over effect in the NFL with nearly half – 19 of 40 – of the teams that finished the season on a five-game winning streak the past 23 seasons missing the playoffs the following year.

”The way we finished last year was all positive and everything but this is a completely new season with new challenges,” left tackle Joe Staley said. ”Everybody has been very focused and understands that. It’s exciting to be able to build on something positive from last year and carry it into the offseason. But there’s no one in the locker room who thinks we arrived. We have a ton of work to do. We were a 6-10 football team. We were happy with the way we finished last year but that’s in the past.”

The presence of Garoppolo is the biggest reason for optimism for San Francisco even if he didn’t look particularly sharp in the first practice of the summer.

He completed 67.4 percent of his passes last season, averaging 8.8 yards per attempt with seven TDs, five interceptions and a 96.2 rating.

Among quarterbacks with at least 100 attempts last season, Garoppolo ranked first in yards per attempt Dante Pettis 49ers Jersey , fourth in completion percentage. His 308.4 yards passing per game in his five starts also would have led the league had he played a full season.

San Francisco scored on an NFL-best 56.6 percent of their drives after Garoppolo took over as starter and ranked in the top five in the league in scoring offense (28.8 points per game), yards per play (6.1) and yards per game (409.6).

That all came with Garoppolo barely knowing the offense, learning just pieces each week as he scrambled to get up to speed. This offseason he was able to start from scratch and has a much deeper understanding of the scheme and his teammates that he hopes translates to even more success on the field.

”The situation I was in last year was so difficult because you’re preparing for a defense that you’re learning in a week, but at the same time, you’re learning brand new calls, new verbiage, all that stuff,” he said. ”So, it was combining all of that into one that made it so difficult. Being able to start from the ground up and learn the why’s of the offense, how it all ties together, how one play helps dictate the next play Brian O'Neill Vikings Jersey , it just makes more sense.”

The Niners made other upgrades this offseason, adding an explosive running back in Jerick McKinnon, beefing up the offensive line and signing cornerback Richard Sherman to upgrade the secondary.

San Francisco also was one of the youngest teams in the league last year and hopes to see natural improvement from all the rookies who got extensive playing time in 2017.

”That’s the expectation,” second-year safety Adrian Colbert said. ”We just have to continue to get better. We can’t get stagnant. We can’t decrease in our production. We have to continue to go. That’s our standard.”

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The rest of the NFL can dispense with any notions of luring Drew Brees away from the team – and city – where the star quarterback has flourished for more than a decade now.

Two people familiar with the contract say Brees has agreed to a two-year, $50 million extension with the New Orleans Saints. The people say $27 million is guaranteed in the first year.

The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity on Tuesday because the agreement has not been announced.

Brees, who turned 39 in January, was due to become a free agent on Wednesday. But he has said he wanted to finish his career in New Orleans, where he has played since 2006, won a Super Bowl and led what has been one of the most productive offenses in the NFL since he and coach Sean Payton arrived.

”I’ll be here as long as they’ll have me,” Brees said after last season ended in January.

Now his return is assured to a team that came within one play of advancing to last season’s NFC championship game, falling at Minnesota when the Vikings scored an unlikely Leonard Williams Jersey Youth , 61-yard touchdown on the final play of their divisional-round NFC playoff game.

Last season, Brees completed an NFL-record 72 percent of his passes for 4,334 yards and 23 touchdowns against eight interceptions. He ranked fourth in the NFL in yards passing and the Saints ranked second in the NFL in total offense.

A second-round draft choice by San Diego in 2001, Brees has passed for 70,445 yards and 488 touchdowns in 17 seasons – 58,097 yards and 408 touchdowns in 12 seasons with New Orleans.

He has passed for more than 5,000 yards in a season five times, most recently in 2016. In 2011, Brees was at the helm of an offense that gained an NFL-record 7,474 yards.

By the time Brees’ new contract expires, he could very well be the NFL’s all-time leader in yards and touchdowns passing. Currently Baker Mayfield Jersey Youth , Peyton Manning holds those marks with 71,940 yards and 539 touchdowns. Brett Favre also is ahead of Brees – for now – with 71, 838 yards and 508 TDs passing.

Brees has been New Orleans’ franchise player during the franchise’s greatest era, which has been highlighted by a Super Bowl championship in the 2009 season and five other playoff seasons.

He arrived when his NFL future was uncertain, as was the future of Hurricane Katrina-ravaged New Orleans. Coming off throwing-shoulder surgery, Brees led the Saints – who had gone 3-13 the year before he arrived – to their first NFC title game.

In the process, Brees and the Saints became a symbol of New Orleans’ resurgence after the storm that flooded 80 percent of the city, flourishing together during the past decade-plus of recovery.

”Certainly, the relationship with this city will always play a strong role in me wanting to be here and … wanting to finish my career here,” Brees said.

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