Everyone is jumping on the San Francisco 49ers bandwagon heading into 2018 — everyone except their starting quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo.
After not losing any of his five starts with the San Francisco 49ers, having faith in quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo isn’t a difficult thing to do. He appears to have the tools to be a star signal-caller in the NFL, and he’s also entering his second season with head coach Kyle Shanahan, who many have proclaimed a quarterback guru.
Because of the faith in Garoppolo though, some fans and analysts have already started the hype train. Look around the web and you won’t be long in finding people jumping on the bandwagon, some possibly even claiming that the 49ers could win the ultra competitive NFC West in the 2018 season.
Frankly, they could do it. Yes, the rebuilding project under general manager John Lynch isn’t complete. With that said, they have a great coaching staff, a likely star at quarterback, and playmakers on both sides of the ball with upside to grow. That’s a good recipe.
However, we’ve seen numerous times throughout the years when young teams catch wind of the hype and get taken up in it. And for the most part, that’s not a good thing. You have to remain level-headed and hungry.
Luckily for the Niners, the most important player on the roster in Garoppolo isn’t falling into that. Per Pro Football Talk, the 49ers quarterback isn’t listening to all the noise, but is simply focused on leading and readying his team for the 2018 season day-by-day:
"“I think we’ve got to have a strong finish to these OTAs first,” Garoppolo told reporters on Tuesday. “People always like to talk about the predictions with the season. Even when the season just ends, they start talking about it. It’s all noise on the outside, but I think we have a good group that is locked in right now. We’re focused on OTAs. We’ll go in to training camp, hopefully have a good training camp and take it day by day.”"
In the world of media-trained athletes, there’s always the chance that this could be lip-service. However, it’s undoubtedly what 49ers fans should want to hear from Jimmy G. It’s not hyperbole to say that this team goes as he goes. But that applies to both the performance on the field and how he handles himself in the locker room.
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As much hype as there is in San Francisco and Garoppolo, the team needs him to be a leader, and he appears to be showing all the signs that he is indeed that for the 49ers.