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Jimmy Garoppolo was excellent for the 49ers in Chicago, but one performance is not going to be enough to garner a ton of equity in the ongoing discussion about whether he should continue as San Francisco’s starting quarterback. What matters now for Garoppolo is what he does next.
There wasn’t much doubt that Garoppolo could have a game like the one he had Sunday at Soldier Field. He was an efficient 17-for-28 for 322 yards, and he ran for two touchdowns. There were no giveaways and no sacks. It looked a lot like his Week 1 performance in Detroit with a couple more standout plays involved.
Questions about Garoppolo’s viability as a starter were never about his peak. The best version of Garoppolo could go toe-to-toe with Drew Brees and the Saints in the Superdome. The questions are about how often he can have games like the one he had in Chicago, and Sunday’s game will earn him at least one more chance to prove it can be a more regular occurrence. At least for a week the Trey Lance conversation will be quieted.
There’s some reason for optimism for Garoppolo and the 49ers’ offense though.
He finished 2019 with a string of 10 mostly strong outings. In those last 10 he completed 69.6 percent of his throws and posted a 16-game pace of 4,262 yards, 32 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. It was a much more productive stretch than his six games to start the year, and it coincided with the arrival of wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders in a trade with the Broncos.
This year there’s unlikely to be such a trade, but Garoppolo can rely on some in-house talent to provide a similar injection of playmaking.
Wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk finally emerged Sunday in Chicago with a season-high seven targets. He caught four of them for 45 yards, hauled in a two-point conversion, and got on the same page as Garoppolo to come open for a big gain when a play broke down and Garoppolo had to get outside the pocket. Tight end George Kittle is also set to come off injured reserve in Week 9 per head coach Kyle Shanahan.
An Aiyuk that more closely resembles the player the 49ers got during his rookie year would be a sizable upgrade for the receiving corps, and a healthy Kittle is one of the most explosive pass-catching tight ends in the NFL.
Garoppolo still has to prove he can recapture the production he posted in the final 10 games of the 2019 season, but Sunday’s game against the Bears was the first real evidence that he still had that type of contest left in him. Now he has to string a few more together. If he does the Lance talk will quiet just in time for the playoff talk to get louder.
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