Forget the old theory, because the San Francisco 49ers are special with Jimmy Garoppolo at quarterback. Time to break out a new theory as this team’s headed from worst to first.
Not long ago the San Francisco 49ers were tanking the 2017 season. They had a hole at quarterback and an unproven rookie doing his best to lead the team. Now the 49ers are in position to go from worst to first next season, thanks to a steal of a deal with the New England Patriots.
There was an old theory about San Francisco, but a single injury has proven it false. Our new theory is way better and full of hope. These 49ers are actually good with Jimmy Garoppolo under center.
Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem, debate the San Francisco 49ers in today’s NFL Sports Debate.
Todd Salem:
I have a new theory about Jimmy Garoppolo and the San Francisco 49ers. First, allow me to recap my old theory about how San Francisco was bungling things and only the football gods helped it out.
The 49ers were silly to keep C.J. Beathard as quarterback after the trade for Garoppolo. Beathard was not their quarterback of the future, and since Jimmy G was heading toward free agency, the team needed to see as much of him as it could in order to determine what type of contract should be offered. Everything else was secondary to determining Garoppolo’s long-term prospects for the team. That was the first, second, and third goal for the remaining few weeks of the 2017 season.
The team played against that, keeping Beathard in the lineup and saying it could franchise Garoppolo next season to get a better look at him. That seemed silly to waste another season when the look could be had here, and only Beathard’s injury saved San Fran from itself.
That was all the old theory.
My New Theory:
San Francisco 49ers leadership felt perfectly confident in Garoppolo’s skills almost as soon as he stepped in the door. They were comfortable paying him a long-term, massive contract this offseason without having him take a snap for the Niners in 20177. Keeping Beathard in the lineup would make the team worse overall, thus resulting in a better draft pick for the team. It all lined up. Only the injury interrupted the plan, forcing Garoppolo into the lineup. And at that point, the secret was out of the bag, and there was no logical recourse to turn back to Beathard.
What do you think? My thoughts on San Francisco just a month ago were rather harsh because I thought it was completely wasting the remaining time it had in the 2017 season for some unknown reason. Why wait until tomorrow for something that can be accomplished today? That still might’ve been the case. They might have just gotten lucky here, as I stated. But it’s also possible the John Lynch/Kyle Shanahan group knew what it was doing. If that’s the case, good for them, and it looks like they made a trade for a legitimate franchise quarterback in the making.
In three-plus games, two of which were on the road and one against a current playoff team, Garoppolo is completing 68.7 percent of his passes and averaging 8.9 yards per attempt. Those marks would place him second and first, respectively, in the entire league over the full season. Just saying.
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Dan Salem:
It’s certainly fair to give San Francisco credit where it’s due. I was a Beathard fan before his injury and completely disagreed with your OLD theory at the time. Why put Garoppolo in meaningless games and risk an injury when the season is already lost? It made perfect sense for the 49ers to let their rookie continue developing and improving, allowing his value to increase. They would either end the season with a better backup or an excellent trading chip, because San Francisco was going to keep Garoppolo.
The injury forced them to play their better option and hurt their 2018 NFL Draft positioning. This season was a rebuild and the 49ers were tanking unofficially. They snagged Garoppolo at a rock bottom price and attempted to stash him on the bench. San Francisco already knew what they had and loved in Garoppolo. He was their guy and rightfully so. I must admit he’s been an even bigger upgrade over Beathard than I imagined, no matter how much I liked the rookie’s performance. But this isn’t surprising and its unfair to compare a rookie to a veteran, let alone a veteran who was groomed by Tom Brady.
Assuming your new theory is accurate, which is a reasonable thing to do, are the 49ers a legitimate threat to pull off what the Los Angeles Rams did this season? Can they too go from worst to first, or at least vault into the playoff discussion? With a top-10 pick in the upcoming draft and Garoppolo under center, San Francisco is going to be a good football team in 2018.
It’s unfortunate that an injury derailed their tanking season, but its probably for the best. Winning a few games is building confidence and leaving a positive taste in everyone’s mouth to end the season. It’s also raising Garoppolo’s value, which is good for San Francisco no matter what happens.
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Todd Salem:
I like the San Francisco 49ers’ chances of the LA Rams rewind (as much as any team could be expected to turn such a miraculous swap of fortune). The 49ers have the quarterback and perhaps the defense to do it, if they bring in some skill players on offense. The key to any turnaround in the NFL is regression to the mean in terms of records in one-possession games. San Francisco began this season 0-5 in such situations and is still just 2-5. If that 0-5 balances out to 3-2 even, we could have found another worst-to-first contender.