John Lynch says he could have won 5 Super Bowls with Jimmy Garoppolo

Jimmy Garoppolo is the greatest thing to ever happen to the San Francisco 49ers. That is, of course, extreme hyperbole, but we’re dealing in that a lot lately. Garoppolo, fresh off his impressive first start with the 49ers, has had more written about him in the last week than most players ever get over the course of a career. And now we’re going to write some more.

On Friday, 49ers general manager John Lynch went on KNBR and talked about — you guessed it — Garoppolo. Lynch said a lot of what he’s said before, talking about tempering expectations and not putting too much on Garoppolo at once, at least early on. But he also threw down some hyperbole of his own.

“I say, man, I could have had five rings if I had a guy like that because in Tampa we never had that,” Lynch said.

He was laughing when he said this, but it’s true that there wasn’t much in the way of top-flight quarterback talent when Lynch played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Trent Dilfer, Brad Johnson, Craig Erickson and Shaun King all took significant snaps for the Buccaneers when Lynch was playing.

Garoppolo certainly has a lot to do before he can say he’s definitively better than those guys, but from a skillset point of view, he certainly looks like his ceiling is quite a bit higher.

Lynch did have some more restrained comments on Garoppolo, of course.

“To me, I think great leaders, great players, I think the greatest quality that you can't measure: Do they make people around them better? And I don't think you can argue that he didn't do that for everybody on the field the other day,” Lynch said. “And so, that was impressive to watch, but it was just one start. I think everyone can be excited, but also pump the brakes, and say, hey, let’s go see what we do this week. I’m excited for that opportunity.”

There is very little pumping of the brakes going on here at Niners Nation, which I’m fine with. For me, I’m still mesmerized by his quick Garoppolo’s release it. That throwing motion alone should lead the 49ers to a much better place than they were headed before the 49ers traded for Garoppolo, even if C.J. Beathard was exceeding most (all?) expectations.