With Brady out of the picture, Shanahan doubles down on Jimmy G at quarterback
49ers coach Kyle Shanahan recently gave one of his strongest endorsements of Jimmy Garoppolo yet when asked about the quarterback’s offseason. He was asked how he responded to the team at least considering the idea of signing Tom Brady in free agency.
“When you have to talk to Jimmy about one of the best quarterbacks of all time being available, I know Jimmy has a goal to be that,” Shanahan said last week. “I know Jimmy. I believe Jimmy has the ability to be that and that’s what both of us are going for.”
It’s no surprise Shanahan would shower his quarterback with praise after an offseason where the open discussion of whether the 49ers would add Brady dominated a few news cycles.
Garoppolo is a bet on the future
Garoppolo struggled in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl and Brady, after all, has one of the most expansive championship resumes in sports history, let alone the NFL, and some believe upgrading at quarterback could be the push the team needs to win a Super Bowl.
Shanahan decided to stick with the 28-year-old Garoppolo for the foreseeable future rather than going with Brady, who will turn 43 in August, for the next season or two. The risk for Shanahan is betting his team’s championship window on Garoppolo’s right arm while a six-time Super Bowl champ, and four-time Super Bowl MVP, was an alternative.
Garoppolo, of course, had a strong season in 2019. It marked the first time he started more than five regular season games and he played well enough to help the 49ers go 13-3 and earn the No. 1 seed in the NFC. The 49ers reached the Super Bowl after outscoring the Vikings and Packers 64-30 combined in two playoff blowouts before succumbing to Patrick Mahomes in Miami.
But questions popped up about Shanahan’s confidence in Garoppolo in the playoffs. After a bad interception late in the first half against Minnesota, Shanahan dialed up 71 runs to just 14 Garoppolo passes in the second half of the divisional round and NFC title game combined.
“When you’re watching how the guys were running and everything, and then watching how our defense was playing, it made it very easy to stick with,” Shanahan said after the 49ers racked up 285 yards on 42 carries to beat Green Bay.
Garoppolo’s record as a starter is 23-6, and he was the only quarterback in the NFL to rank in the top five in passing touchdowns, yards per attempt and completion percentage last season.
Which generally points to optimism for Garoppolo going forward. And in 2020, he’ll have the added benefit of going through an offseason without having to rehab his torn ACL like he did during last offseason. Garoppolo has said it took a significant amount of physical and mental strain to get his surgically repaired left knee back into form so he could play.
There was clearly rust early in the season. Garoppolo’s 93.6 passer rating through the first seven games ranked 17th among starters. He improved to fourth in the league with a 107.6 rating over the final nine games.
This offseason, albeit with unique constraints brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, Garoppolo has focused on improving as a quarterback, not his getting his knee right.
Quarterback in the right mindset
Shanahan has noticed during his online interactions with Garoppolo over Zoom meetings that Garoppolo is in a different head space than last offseason.
“I can tell his thoughts are a lot clearer because he’s not worrying about an ACL and rehabbing,” said Shanahan. “He’s 100 percent focused and getting better mentally from knowing the offense from just knowing defense.
“It’s not just, everyone says, learning the offense. Jimmy’s learned the offense. He’s fine with that. It’s just being automatic, it’s understanding coverages. … That never stops. So, to go through an offseason where you don’t have to rehab the whole time, it gives you a chance to take that to another level.”
Understanding coverages could be a sticking point for Garoppolo this offseason. Turning the ball over was an obvious bugaboo throughout last season. And a number of his 13 interceptions could be filed under the head-scratching variety. His 2.7-percent interception rate ranked fourth-worst among quarterbacks to start 16 games.
There’s also a chance Garoppolo could improve under pressure, where he played well during his 5-0 debut with San Francisco in 2017. According to Pro Football Focus, Garoppolo averaged a robust 8.3 yards per attempt while under pressure, which fell to just 7.0 last season.
Perhaps being more comfortable with the knee will play a role.
“If we can get him there and he has the ability to do it, we’re going to be pretty happy with who we have for a long time,” Shanahan said.
This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 4:00 AM.