Making the case why Jimmy G should be Seahawks QB of the future
The 49er Jimmy G Era
Acquired in October by the 49ers and their new head coach Kyle Shanahan, Jimmy was slowly brought along, becoming the starter on Thanksgiving weekend. While Garoppolo’s numbers weren’t fantastic, he did lead the 49ers to a 5-0 record to finish the season. The vibe around the franchise had changed. Shortly after the season ended, the 49ers signed Garoppolo to a five-year extension, one of the largest contracts in the NFL at the time.
After a successful run with the 49ers post-2017 trade, expectations were sky-high for Jimmy and the team in 2018, before he tore his ACL early in the season. That injury put San Fransisco in a position to draft Nick Bosa in the draft the following year, and along with dominant offensive and defensive trench play, Garoppolo and the 49ers won the 2019 NFC title and were ten minutes and a ten-point lead away from a Super Bowl championship before choking the game away to the Kansas City Chiefs.
After an injury-plagued 2020 season for Garoppolo and pretty much the entire team ruined the 49ers season, the front office essentially gave up on Garoppolo, trading multiple first-round picks to jump up in the draft to select quarterback Trey Lance with the third pick in last year’s draft.
With an Alex Smith style transition apparent, Garoppolo would start the year as the starter, with fans and the media clamoring for Lance. With a calf injury suffered in one of his two losses to the Seahawks, the door had opened for Lance to take the job.
Lance would show more concern than promise in his two losses as a starter, allowing Garoppolo to keep the job. While most expected a switch at the QB position to be permanent, Garoppolo didn’t give up the throne. He suffered multiple injuries but continued to fight through the noise. Garoppolo led the 49ers to a 10-7 finish and the sixth seed in the postseason.
Once in the postseason, Garoppolo continued to battle through injuries and up and down play, but along with a dominant defense, was able to defeat the Dallas Cowboys on the road and pull off a major upset of the Green Bay Packers to get to the NFC championship.
Back in the NFC title game, Jimmy played well early one, and the 49ers once again held a ten-point lead in the fourth quarter against the LA Rams, before costly mistakes and uneven play led to another heartbreaking defeat, ending their season. Even with their second successful season in three years in which they were so close to a championship, both sides gave off the impression that the relationship between Garoppolo and the 49ers was coming to an end.
Why did I give you this brief breakdown of his career? Because Jimmy Garoppolo is one of the more underrated and underappreciated quarterbacks in the history of the NFL. He was a part of a winning culture in New England, and when given the opportunity, he won. He gets traded to San Francisco and they immediately become relevant.
Take away his injury-plagued seasons and look at his 2017, 2019, and 2021 years. He’s 27-9 in those seasons combined and 4-2 in the playoffs. He’s a winner, and he has the tools to be successful, he’s just got a brutal freak injury history.
So now here we sit in the middle of June, and still no trade for Garoppolo. He did have surgery on his shoulder and has been excused from mandatory minicamp. The belief is that he has been asked to stay away in order to not cause too much drama with a team that loves him, while San Francisco figures out what to do.