Shanahan has stated he likes Jimmy Garoppolo. But what else is he going to say. I’ve never seen Shanahan ever throw any of his guys under the bus publicly. He’s not going to do that. So of course he’s going to say he likes him, just like he said he liked Hoyer and Beathard, Mullens too. Of course he’s going to say he likes his players. Why wouldn’t he?
So we have to look at actions. Throughout the year, Kyle Shanahan kept the ball out of harm’s way a ton by using the running game. Of course, Shanahan’s scheme has always been designed with great running back play in mind and this season was no different, as they boasted the second best running attack in the NFL behind only the Ravens. Teams couldn’t stop it.
And that was especially true in the playoffs. Garoppolo threw it a total of just 14 times in his last 6 quarters heading into the Super Bowl. Just six passes in the second half against the Vikings and eight total in the game against the Packers. Granted the run game was really strong in those games but you still would hope you can go balanced on your attack. Shanahan has always been a stickler for a balanced play call. But there were times this season where he just decided pounding the rock 80-90% of the time was good enough.
In the playoffs especially, this became even more magnified. After Garoppolo threw an interception against the Vikings, Shanahan seemed to totally change the game plan to run it more. They weren’t up big and had no reason to just milk clock. They had to actually go out and win that game in the second half, not just hold it. And in that moment, Shanahan decided to take it out of Garoppolo’s hands and continually just told him to turn around and hand it off. It worked, but it didn’t show trust in the guy.
It happened again in the Packers game. They ran it early and often. Jimmy barely threw the entire game. And this is maybe a bigger indictment on Garoppolo because this seemed to be the gameplan. It’s the NFC Championship game and your plan is to hand it off all but eight times. Again, if worked. But it doesn’t exactly show trust in your guy.
This changed in the Super Bowl though. Perhaps Shanahan had to prove something to people and try to let Garoppolo prove himself. And he was doing it for three quarters. He was 18-21 but then fell off in the 4th. 3–10 in the 4th, didn’t protect the football (which is the biggest known issue with Garoppolo) and missed a open Sanders on a championship throw. In the moments they needed him most in that game, he didn’t deliver. Shanahan gave him a chance to deliver after not being given that chance all playoffs. He didn’t deliver.
Garoppolo’s stats were pretty good. He threw for almost 4000 yards, 27 TDs to 13 INTs and a 102 QBR. But he didn’t throw it as much as other QBs. He could have thrown for 5000 yards and 35 TDs with more of a passing game but might have thrown 18-20 INTs.
Again, the interceptions and putting the ball in harm’s way is Jimmy Garoppolo’s biggest flaw. It’s not as bad as a guy like Jameis Winston or maybe even Joe Flacco a few years ago but it’s still a problem. And it’s probably the reason why they don’t throw the ball as much in this offense as Shanahan would like. He’d probably prefer to throw the ball as much in this offense as he could with Matt Ryan in Atlanta. But Garoppolo doesn’t make it possible, at least not right now.
Garoppolo has tremendous arm talent. And he’s only been a starter one full season and still has less than two seasons worth of starts. So it might not be a full trust issue as much as it is a patience thing. Shanahan might have tailored this offense a bit for him this past season to not put too much on him while also still applying pressure to him. He was also coming off an ACL tear so that might have lead to putting some limitations on Garoppolo as well. There’s a good chance Garoppolo still gets better in this offense. In fact, I’d guarantee he can if given the chance.
So while I do believe it’s true that Shanahan doesn’t have full trust in Garoppolo, I wouldn’t call it distrust either. I’d say that Shanahan was just trying to ease a guy into his first full year of starting coming off an ACL tear. And given that, Garoppolo played well. I think it’s being overblown about how much they don’t trust him. It’s no surprise Shanahan won’t be giving full trust to him yet in this situation. He’s not reached that level after less than 30 starts in the NFL. It’s just unreasonable.
I think the 49ers do believe in Garoppolo as their franchise quarterback and will do all they can to put him in situations to be successful. If he is on the team next season, I think a lot of the limitations on him from last season will be lifted and he’ll have an even greater chance to lead the offense.
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