The 49ers got their second player on the NFL top 100 list, and first inside the top 50 when quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo landed at No. 43. He joins Fred Warner (70) as the first two 49ers named.
This is the first time Garoppolo has been on the NFL list of the 100 best players as voted on by his peers. It comes on the heels of his first full season as a starting quarterback, in which he returned from a torn ACL to guide San Francisco to a 13-3 record and their seventh Super Bowl berth.
While the prevailing thought is that the 49ers hid Garoppolo behind the NFL’s No. 2 rushing attack, he proved capable of winning games with his right arm as the season progressed.
Garoppolo finished the year with 3,978 passing yards, 27 touchdowns, 13 interceptions and 102.0 passer rating.
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers’ run game get a lot of credit for Garoppolo’s success, but he still executed well enough and won often enough to earn a place in the top half of the NFL’s 100 best players.