Jimmy Garoppolo simply is not a sensible choice for the San Francisco 49ers in 2022
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Jimmy Garoppolo and the San Francisco 49ers are in the middle of a period where they’ve won four out of five. This has San Francisco at 7-6 in the season and currently as the sixth seed in the NFC playoffs.
After a hard-fought overtime win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, we’re now hearing more about Jimmy’s future in Northern California.
NBC Sports’ Peter King reports that the San Francisco leadership are still undecided whether to keep Garoppolo for the 2022 season or go under the middle with youngster Trey Lance.
“I was told that the Niners have not yet decided how to handle their quarterback situation in 2022 and beyond,” King reported Monday. “They shouldn’t be. How do you know how Garoppolo will play on track and into a playoff run if that is the fate of this season? I was also told that the Niners were impressed, with Garoppolo’s career at stake, of how he handled this strange year, with Lance as the third choice on the draft, and with Garoppolo expected to handle things like a pro. He has.”
As throughout his 49ers career, Garoppolo has been solid. Outside of that all-important win-loss statistic, it wasn’t spectacular.
Jimmy Garoppolo stats: 66.7% completion, 2,937 yards, 17 touchdowns, eight interceptions, 99.2 rating
Garoppolo leads the NFL in yards per completion at 12.6. Most of this, however, has to do with the fact that the 49ers receivers dominate from the perspective of the meters after the catch.
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Can the San Francisco 49ers justify bringing Jimmy Garoppolo back?
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That’s literally the $ 27 million San Francisco question in 2022. In today’s hard-cap era surrounding the NFL, having a quarterback playing under your rookie deal is a competitive advantage.
This must be one of the reasons why General Manager John Lynch and Co. had already exhausted three first-round picks and a future third-round selection in April to move up to 3rd place in the overall selection for Lance.
The 49ers have young stars they need to consider extending this off-season. These include elite playmakers like wide receiver Deebo Samuel and star-edge rusher Nick Bosa. Both will charge top five cash for their positions. And as you’ll see below, both of them have dominated this season.
It’s not that keeping Jimmy Garoppolo would prevent San Francisco from expanding those players. Instead, it’s about priorities.
Jimmy GQ is nothing more than your average quarterback. He struggles with throwing outward and across the field. It can be argued that he is the 49ers’ biggest offensive right now. This is not an exaggeration.
San Francisco is not literally built around the quarterback position. Rather, the team has laid its foundation on the running game and victory in the trenches.
It’s similar to the previous Alex Smith era before Colin Kaepernick took over for him in the 2012 season. That is, a limited seasoned quarterback playing in front of an unknown youngster with unlimited potential.
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What happens in the last four regular season games and possibly the playoffs is going to tell us what we need to know here.
Should the 49ers make a surprisingly deep run in the postseason, their brass section will likely fight back against Garoppolo’s departure. It’s no different than after the 2019 season, when San Francisco decided against signing Tom Brady just a few months after Garoppolo “led” the team to the Super Bowl.
In and of itself, this should serve as a curriculum for the current 49er brass players. Garoppolo won’t be the reason San Francisco is taking a deep run in the playoffs. But he was able to prevent said run.
With all that said, the 49ers don’t seem ready to leave the veteran.
“Jimmy’s one of my favorite people I’ve ever trained,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said recently. “He’s a bloody guy. He’s not trying to hide anything. Nor do I want to downplay it and say that this whole situation is just not a big deal. It’s a huge thing. Really tough for him. But he came back to the OTAs with the right attitude. He didn’t get through sideways at all. No matter what he hears, he was exactly the same guy I knew the four years before and that gave us a chance to fight through this year. It gave us the chance to be where we are right now. “
This would be an absolutely huge mistake that could set the 49ers franchise back years.
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