SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- In relationship terms, the San Francisco 49ers and quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo made their pairing Facebook official on Tuesday afternoon.

Of course, being in a relationship isn't the same as getting married. And now that Garoppolo is with the Niners and poised to become their starter in the near future, the next question is when will the two sides head to the altar and cement Garoppolo's status as the short- and long-term answer at the position?

After listening to general manager John Lynch, coach Kyle Shanahan and Garoppolo answer repeated questions about when that could happen, it became increasingly clear that this will not be a shotgun wedding, even though all parties indicated a desire to eventually walk down the aisle.

"I think we brought him here because we want him to be the quarterback of the future," Shanahan said. "That's up to Jimmy and how it works out here, and we're going to work our best to get him ready. We talked about, we're going to look at every opportunity to find that guy, and this opportunity came up, and Jimmy is a guy that we believe can be that guy. So, when that opportunity came up, and it's a guy that you believe in from what you've seen on tape and what you've heard of people that know him, that's something that's too good of an opportunity to pass up on. So, we didn't hesitate."

Scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in the offseason, Garoppolo's status beyond 2017 is uncertain. In trading for him rather than waiting for him to be a free agent, the Niners have given themselves at least some sort of certainty when it comes to his rights.

That certainty comes in the form of the franchise and transition tags, which the Niners could use on Garoppolo if they can't get him signed to an extension or if they prefer to take a longer look than the six or seven games he'll play to close this season before committing to a quarterback with only two NFL starts to his name. As it stands, the franchise tag for 2018 figures to come in around $23 million, which would be a lot for Garoppolo given his sample size but could also buy the Niners more time if they feel they need a longer evaluation before handing him many millions over many years.

The Niners actually find themselves in a tricky spot. Commit big money to him before he proves himself and they could find themselves left with a player not worthy of a big-money deal. Wait too long and they could find themselves in a situation like Washington currently is in with Kirk Cousins, where he could have been signed at a more palatable price had the deal been done quickly but a refusal to commit led to a contract standoff.

Garoppolo's relative inexperience makes putting a price on him now difficult, but his potential could also drive that number through the roof the longer the Niners wait.

All of those things are surely on the minds of Garoppolo's representatives and 49ers chief contract negotiator Paraag Marathe, all of whom were in the room Tuesday.

"Look, I just met Jimmy for the first time," Lynch said. "There's a lot of options at our disposal. We're just getting to know him. Honest to God, we need to get him in the playbook, so that’s where we’re going to start, first thing's first. But, I can tell you, second-round picks are very valuable in this league, particularly where we are at as an organization. And so, this is a guy we wanted and were willing to give what we thought was a very valuable commodity in exchange for him. So, we're excited moving forward that he's going to be a part of our future.”

Garoppolo offered similar thoughts.

"I just got off the plane," Garoppolo said. "I haven’t even thought about that, to be honest. Like Kyle said in there, we’ll take it week to week and try to learn the playbook, first off. That’s goal No. 1 right now, so I’ll probably have a better answer for you in the future."

To be sure, it would be an overstatement to call the rest of this season an audition for Garoppolo. The Niners believe in him. They also want to see what he can do and put him in position to succeed, something they likely can't do until the offseason when they can spend some of their copious cap space and draft picks to improve his supporting cast.

"Our goal here, we didn’t just bring Jimmy here to just help us right now," Shanahan said. "We would love for him to help us right now. But, this is more about the big picture, too. And you can look into anything about when and why, but it's hard to find, it's hard to get opportunities in this league.

"I've seen it throughout my whole career, but it's hard to come across opportunities to get guys that you believe have a chance to be your quarterback for a while. I think every team is looking for that except for probably six teams. And when those opportunities come around, if you believe that's the case, you don't hesitate and you don't look back. It's not about looking into every other situation possible. That's, to me, leaving stuff up for hope and chance. When something comes across and that's available, which this did, over the last few days, very recently, and it was to our surprise, but once we did have an opportunity and we believe in someone like we do with Jimmy, that's something that I would never hesitate on and never look back and never question the timing or the what-ifs.”

The 49ers never planned to land Garoppolo when they did, it just happened to work out. But to keep him for the long haul and have it turn out to be a wise investment, they must get the timing just right.