The 2020 season is going to be fascinating for 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. He went 13-3 in his first full season as a starter while posting good numbers and guiding the team to Super Bowl LIV. His performance in the final game last season left something to be desired, but it led to a long conversation in the public about Garoppolo’s viability as a long-term starter.
Signs that take into account larger sample sizes than one or two games point to the 49ers’ quarterback putting together a better 2020 campaign.
We went through some of Garoppolo’s over/unders for the 2020 season from FoxBet.com, and created two of our own, to see whether he’ll go over or under any of those projected numbers.
Over or under: 500.5 pass attempts
Pick: Over 500.5 pass attempts
There are a couple things that factor into an uptick in attempts for Garoppolo. First, he won’t be coming off an injury so there’ll be less of a need to ease him into the 2020 season. Garoppolo averaged just 27 attempts per game over the first seven last year. That number won’t likely be as low out of the gate again. There’s also a chance San Francisco’s defense regresses some and makes more passing necessary in the game script.
If he hits 501 attempts, he’ll be at just over 31 passes per game, up two per game from a season ago. That seems like a reasonable increase in workload for the quarterback while still functioning in a run-heavy offense.