49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo wasn’t great in the postseason. That doesn’t mean he’s due to continue that rough stretch of play in perpetuity. In fact, signs point to him being better in 2020 than he was a season ago.
Perhaps the biggest factor in Garoppolo’s improvement this year will be his offseason work. While the COVID-19 shutdowns have limited teams to online meetings in lieu of a true offseason program, the 49ers’ quarterback won’t have to spend his spring and summer rehabbing a torn ACL like he did a year ago.
There was noticeable rust from Garoppolo in his two preseason performances and his first several starts. His numbers through seven games were remarkably pedestrian. He was completing 69.8 percent of his throws on 27 attempts per game, and on pace for 3,403 yards, 21 touchdowns, 16 interceptions, 7.9 yards per attempt and a 93.6 rating. This is the portion of the year where it felt like the 49ers winning in spite of the quarterback play.
That changed in the second half of the year.
His final nine starts were a different story as head coach Kyle Shanahan began to lean more on his quarterback. The attempts bumped to 32 per game while the completion rate dipped some to 68.6 percent. Garopplo’s 16-game pace leapt to 4,425 yards, 32 touchdowns and 11 interceptions with a 107.6 rating and 8.7 yards per attempt. That set of games includes his abysmal Week 10 showing against the Seahawks where he completed just 52 percent of his throws and had multiple potential interceptions bounce off of Seattle defenders in an overtime loss at Levi’s Stadium. He certainly wasn’t perfect week in and week out, but his overall performance improved dramatically, which is what matters here.
A slew of factors played into the uptick in usage, but the overall production points to an increased comfort level as the season churned on.
The arrival of Emmanuel Sanders in Week 8 helped the passing attack take off, but Garoppolo was good even as Sanders and tight end George Kittle battled injuries that either limited them or kept them out of the lineup. The 49ers aimed to replace Sanders, who exited for New Orleans in free agency, by trading up to select Arizona State wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk in the first round of this year’s draft. Aiyuk may not be able to replace Sanders right away, but his skill set points to him playing a significant role in the offense by year’s end.
There are some warts to Garoppolo’s game that may be inescapable. He’s a gunslinger who holds onto the ball a tick too long sometimes and has a penchant for forcing throws that aren’t there. It leads to more interceptions and easy pass breakups than the team would probably like. Eliminating the inexplicable throws directly at a defender would go a long way toward fixing the major problem that plagued Garoppolo last season. However, those chances and mistakes become easier to stomach if the rest of his numbers are better.
Where Garoppolo winds up statistically is probably a little south of his 4,400-yard, 32-touchdown pace from the final nine games last season. He’ll also be much better than he was in the postseason – a stretch of three unproductive games that tend to understandably linger in the minds of some 49ers fans.
There’s a nine-game sample prior to the playoffs that offer a reason for optimism about Garoppolo heading into 2020 though. A healthy offseason to make improvements as a quarterback should put him on track to look more like he did over the final nine games last season than he did in the first seven. If he plays at that level for a full 16-game slate, San Francisco will be in line for another deep playoff run.
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