Burning 49ers questions: What’s the key for Jimmy Garoppolo in 2020?
How good will Jimmy Garoppolo be? That’s one of the most important football-related questions facing the 49ers if and when the 2020 season kicks off while the country continues to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
The 28-year-old franchise quarterback has become somewhat of a polarizing figure, particularly amid an offseason that included his coach and general manager publicly admitting their conversations about considering free agent Tom Brady as a replacement. It all became predictable fodder for talk radio and debate-style television.
But those discussions led to coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch deciding to stick with Garoppolo. Neither Shanahan nor Lynch thought moving on to Brady, who turns 43 in August, would be in the best interest of the franchise.
Shanahan said he had the conversation with Garoppolo about why he and Lynch considered the idea of Brady — and Shanahan was encouraged by Garoppolo’s response.
“When you have to talk to Jimmy about one of the best quarterbacks of all time being available, I know Jimmy has the goal to be that. And I believe Jimmy has the ability to be that,” Shanahan said. “And that’s what both of us are going for. And 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.”
Four segments of Garoppolo’s 2019
Garoppolo’s 2019 season could be discussed in four segments. There was training camp, where he was mostly sharp on the practice field before he famously threw interceptions on five straight passes (a case could be made the sequence said more about the 49ers’ defense than Garoppolo) and had a passer rating of 0.0 in his preseason debut in Denver.
Then came Garoppolo’s modest first six games of the season. His play vacillated from lackluster to productive almost weekly. He had two games over the first six with a passer rating over 100.0.
Coming off a torn ACL in his left knee a year earlier, it was clear he wasn’t playing as free and easy as his ultra-positive stint in 2017, which led to his $137.5 million contract following his midseason arrival from New England. There was rust, a hint of tentativeness and a dash of bad decision making that led to problematic interceptions.
Then came the third stanza, when Emmanuel Sanders was added in a trade with the Broncos to fortify the passing game and address the offense’s biggest weak point at receiver. Garoppolo, in his first game with Sanders, completed 18 passes to just four incompletions and he went on to have a passer rating over 100.0 in six of his next seven games.
His 108.1 passer rating over his final 10 regular season contests ranked fourth in the NFL among quarterbacks with at least 100 attempts. His 20 touchdown passes tied for fourth, his 8.62 yards per attempt and 69.6 completion rate were both second.
He had excellent performances during the last-second victories in New Orleans and Seattle, which set up the 49ers for their cruise through the playoffs as the NFC’s top seed. The occasional mind-numbing interception remained a problem.
The playoffs and Super Bowl are the final pieces to Garoppolo 2019 puzzle. Most notably, Shanahan decided the best route to winning was taking the ball out of Garoppolo’s hands and give it to the running backs as they ran all over the Vikings and Packers.
Garoppolo’s interception to Minnesota linebacker Eric Kendricks late in the second quarter of the divisional round appeared to cause Shanahan to adjust his game plan.
Over the final six quarters of the NFC playoffs, the 49ers ran 71 times, including 42 against the Packers, to just 14 passes. Shanahan said playing to his defense with a ball-control offense was the easiest path to victory. His team averaged 5.75 yards per carry during that stretch. It’s hard to fault that logic given San Francisco outscored Minnesota and Green Bay 64-30, combined.
But it didn’t signal a sense of confidence in Garoppolo either, particularly since it came after he threw the inexcusable interception to Kendricks that led to a field goal while making it a 14-10 game at the break.
Then, of course, came the Super Bowl, when Garoppolo was efficient during the first three quarterbacks before playing a major role in the team-wide meltdown.
What about Jimmy G’s 2020?
If conventional wisdom holds, Garoppolo should get better, perhaps significantly better.
That’s what happened with Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan in his second season under Shanahan. And it’s typical quarterbacks make their biggest leaps between their first and second seasons. In Garoppolo’s case, he’s been in the NFL since 2014, but last season was his first full year as a starter due to the knee injury early in 2018.
Ryan’s numbers jumped across the board leading to winning regular season MVP and going to the Super Bowl. Perhaps you heard about the 28-3 second-half lead that team blew to Garoppolo’s Patriots.
But perhaps the most obvious area in Ryan’s game to improve that could also help Garoppolo is interceptions. Ryan averaged 14.6 picks over the previous five seasons. Garoppolo, of course, had 13, which was the most significant statistical blemish on his 2019 resume.
Having a better understanding of opposing defense has been a focus for Garoppolo while going through the virtual offseason program that leaned heavily on video conferencing calls to go over game film.
“Everyone says learning the offense. Jimmy has learned the offense. He’s fine with that,” Shanahan said. “It’s just being automatic, understanding coverages, going through everything.
“I can’t tell you how much more I know as a coach in year 17 or whatever than I did in year 2. And that never stops,” Shanahan continued. “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. I think Jimmy is fired up for this year. Last year was his first year to play a whole year and he had a hell of a year and got us very close to winning the Super Bowl.”