The Rams did it. Now it’s the 49ers’ turn.
Jared Goff, who “led” the Rams to the Super Bowl and found himself in the MVP discussion just two short years ago, has been shipped off to Detroit along with his cumbersome contract and a couple of first-round picks for Matthew Stafford, giving Sean McVay the upgrade he seemed to be looking for over the past year.
That trade was the first domino to fall during an offseason that could see several big-name quarterbacks switch teams. And now that the Rams have settled their quarterback situation, all eyes shift toward their NFC West rivals in San Francisco.
The 49ers are currently where the Rams were a year ago. They’re a year removed from losing a Super Bowl they would’ve won with a better performance out of their highly paid quarterback. Los Angeles decided to give the quarterback they had invested so much in already another season to prove he was the guy moving forward. A year later, they finally admitted their mistake but had to pay a big price to fix it.
The 49ers cannot afford to make the same mistake with Jimmy Garoppolo.
Like Goff, Garoppolo is a talented thrower whose limitations as a processor have been masked by brilliant play-calling. Goff had McVay. Jimmy G had Kyle Shanahan. But when their teams didn’t have a significant coaching advantage, which waas bound to happen in the playoffs when most teams are well-coached, their weaknesses came to light. In other words, Jimmy G was just good enough to get the 49ers to the Super Bowl — provided everything around him was perfect — but not good enough to get them over the hump.
The sooner San Francisco recognizes this, the better.
(And it will be much easier to offload Garoppolo, whose contract is very team friendly. The same was not true for Goff, which is why the Rams had to throw in all those draft picks in order to convince Detroit to take on Goff’s salary.)
With Deshaun Watson requesting a trade from Houston, the 49ers have a chance to do something that we’ve rarely seen: Acquire an elite quarterback without having to draft him. Shanahan knows the value of putting a legitimate franchse quarterback in that offense of his. The last time we saw that — when he had Matt Ryan in Atlanta — records were broken. It’s time for him to demand more out of his quarterback.
Per @pff_seth here’s the heat maps for Shanahan’s 2016 and 2019 offenses and Stafford DET 2019. Not hard to figure out why Stafford would be a clear upgrade. Don’t think Shanahan wants to continue to live between the numbers under 12yds. Severely limited. pic.twitter.com/FjbwkcJXNO
— Rich (@richjmadrid) January 27, 2021
Shanahan should be leading the charge for a deal for Watson to get done … no matter what it takes. And if Watson is an unrealistic goal, then the 49ers need to make a move up the draft board to take either Justin Fields, Zach Wilson or Trey Lance.
With how the 49ers roster is constructed, now is not the time for patience. The defense should be strong next season, but that won’t last for very long. It rarely does for elite defenses. So now is the time for San Francisco to go all in. The window is closing and only a move for an upgrade at quarterback would prop it open longer.
Whether it’s Watson or one of the top quarterback prospects in this year’s class, the 49ers cannot go into the 2021 season with Garoppolo as the starting quarterback. The Rams raised the bar; the 49ers should do everything in their power to clear it.
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