Shanahan’s thinking is changing on QBs; What does that mean for Garoppolo?
Coach Kyle Shanahan has already made it clear what he thinks is likely to happen with the 49ers’ quarterback situation in 2021.
“I expect Jimmy (Garoppolo) to be our starter next year,” Shanahan said last month when asked about Garoppolo’s uncertain future, while noting he expects Garoppolo to return from a second high-ankle sprain at some point late this season.
“We’ve got to do one game at a time and I hope Jimmy can come back and be a part of that, but to think that we’ve made any decisions on somebody going into the future, this isn’t the case,” Shanahan said. “Jimmy has won a lot of games for us this year. It’s a lot harder to win games when he’s not here and I’m just hoping we can get him back.”
Anything Shanahan says about the quarterback position is notable given Garoppolo isn’t assured the starting job in 2021 after injuries derailed a season for the second time in his three-year run as the franchise signal-caller. He’s currently working back from a second high-ankle sprain to his right leg and is pushing to return for the final two games of the season.
If a better option presents itself in 2021, San Francisco will consider it, as the 49ers did when Tom Brady made it apparent he was interested in joining the team last spring.
The 49ers, of course, could move on from Garoppolo when the new league year begins with little financial penalty, which could be prudent given the salary cap is expected to shrink while Garoppolo has the team’s largest cap hit at $26.9 million.
But it would take a better option to justify moving away from Garoppolo given the team has a 24-9 record in his starts, including the playoffs, and the run to the Super Bowl in 2019 as the NFC’s top seed behind a handful of strong Garoppolo performances.
Finding an elite quarterback
Alternative options might harder to come by given San Francisco is unlikely to pick in the top 10 of the draft, and moving up to find a quarterback would deplete the team’s draft capital in an offseason where a slew of starters could leave in free agency.
Shanahan on Wednesday said the way he looks at quarterbacks is changing, which could provide context into the way he makes decisions about Garoppolo and the game’s most important position.
Though what he said wasn’t exactly concrete.
“How I evaluate everything is always changing,” Shanahan said from Arizona via Zoom. “Things change, people change. You start to see you can win football games with any type of quarterback as long as they are good enough and you can be good enough in hundreds of different ways.
“So, I evaluate quarterbacks in terms of trying to find people who can have a chance to be one of those elite-type guys and there’s lots of different ways to do it. You can see now there’s plenty of different ways, so I don’t think that’ll ever change. I don’t think you have one certain thing you’re looking for. You’re just trying to find a guy who is better than about 98 percent of the people on this planet or in this country and when you find that, you get him and you adjust to him.”
Shanahan’s words came on the heels of a loss to the Bills and quarterback Josh Allen, who carved up San Francisco’s defense from both the pocket and on the move. Allen had arguably his best game as a pro, completing 32 of 40 passes with four touchdown passes and no interceptions. A lot of his damage came after evading the 49ers’ lackluster pass rush and blitzes by finding receivers downfield after plays broke down.
Allen came into the 2018 draft known for his big arm, athleticism and mobility. But his inaccuracy in college made him a polarizing prospect. After all, there’s a long list of mobile quarterbacks who didn’t succeed in the NFL because they weren’t accurate enough, and it’s rare for quarterbacks to dramatically improve their accuracy once they turn pro.
Mobility hasn’t been part of Garoppolo’s skill set recently, particularly as he’s dealt with ankle injuries, which has led to speculation about the 49ers looking for a more mobile quarterback that can be dangerous from outside the pocket and be utilized in Shanahan’s potent running game.
The era of the mobile quarterback
Allen, Russell Wilson, Kyler Murray, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and others have put mobility back en vogue. And Shanahan already proved he can win with a mobile quarterback when he did it with Robert Griffin III in Washington, who ran for 815 yards and seven touchdowns when he won Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2012.
What Shanahan said Wednesday comes in contrast to what he said back after he was hired in 2017 long before the Garoppolo trade. Back then, it was all about arm talent.
“If you aren’t an extremely talented thrower, which means it’s effortless, you don’t think about it, you don’t have to go all these quarterback gurus and work on your motion, you were born to throw,” Shanahan said. “If you don’t have that, it’s very hard to succeed in this league because you got to make some throws into tight windows, on time, with ball placement. It’s hard to get people wide open in this league.”
That jibes with the decision to trade for Garoppolo, who has a quick release and the accuracy to allow his targets to make plays after the catch. That’s been the clear staple of Shanahan’s passing attack. Though some believe it’s been limited by Garoppolo’s inability to push the ball downfield on top of a lack of mobility.
“You’re always looking for one of those seven throwers on the planet, whatever that number is. I’m guessing there’s only around seven,” Shanahan said in 2017. “So you better not only be set on that, saying, ‘Hey, I need one of those seven guys.’
“I hope to get one of those seven guys, but if you don’t, you got to find other ways to win.”
There’s a great irony in all this. Shanahan said he wanted “one of those seven guys” weeks before the 2017 draft, when the team passed up on Patrick Mahomes, deciding to take Solomon Thomas third overall before Mahomes went 10th to the Kansas City Chiefs.
What happened after that needs no reminder.
